A week's worth
by SlyPieXD
Summary: It's the 8th year the Cipher twins return to Gravity Falls; taking up the Mystery Shack their deceased uncle left behind. Amidst their return, Bill found a secret basement behind the vending machine, and alas, another journal. "We found most of them without this journal, anyway.""But there's a summoning spell on the next page, Bill!""Ah, I see it. Beware of Mabel Pines?"
**So you may have seen this story on AO3, where I posted it a day ago. It was really crappy and wasn't proof-read, but this one is. Or half of it is, anyway. I'm gonna hope the other half I bothered to read what I was writing.**

 **So I basically made this story up as I went, and the plot is all over the place.. Kind of weird...**

 **And it's hard to maintain their personalities when their characters are now opposite... Super hard. So one might be a little OOC at times, especially Mabel. And you'll understand why towards the end. Did I just spoil it? I hope not.**

 **So this is a roleswitch!au in which Mabes is the Dream-demon and Bill is the sweater-loving cold man with a twin.**

 **Much love and appreciation to ya! Enjoy~**

* * *

"How long are you going to search that old cash register! All of that money was used for Uncle Joey's funeral Will!"

Said person glared at his look-alike before sighing. There _was_ nothing left in that cash-register. Well, no matter! This place would be up and running again in no time!

This place was the Mystery Shack; an old tourist trap their uncle had left behind. It currently was residing in Gravity Falls Oregon, a place so small and unheard of that it wasn't charted directly on maps.

The heat today was just unbearably hot, as it was most summers. It was the twin's 8th year in this town, their upcoming birthday in August would make them 21. Since day one at this creepy town, they discovered a bunch of strange creatures, monsters, items, and even more, along with a journal Bill had found when they were 12. Of course, their Uncle denied having known of any of it, believing even the journal was a load of "cow poop that wouldn't even be good to wipe your behind with."

A loud crash alerted the one-eyed twin and he turned his head to see his brother face-first into the ground, one hand holding onto a rack (one of which was now also on the floor) seemingly as a last resort to try and hold steady.

"Get up! We still have all of this stuff to unload!"

The twin had got up shakily and put the rack back. He curtly glared at his brother before stomping off to help.

"Thanks for nothing Bill!"

"You're welcome!" The one-eyed twin called back with a wide smile.

Bill moved the suitcases along before stopping and looking around. He hadn't exactly mapped out the new places for everything. All of Uncle Joey's stuff was either sold or put into a bought storage garage.

He was _not_ sleeping in that nasty old attic again. The house needed repairs badly, but Uncle Joey shrugged it off, and when it rained it leaked in the attic.

" _Think of it as having lots of free oxygen,"_ his brother assured him when they were little.

" _No, it's gross and it makes our clothes smell like mildew!"_

" _I have no problem with it!"_

 _Bill gave a deadpan look at his twin in his nasty, stained clothes. When was the last time he showered? He had nightmares of when William had thrown his blanket on him last week… He still couldn't get that stench out._

" _Of course you don't."_

Well, his brother was no different now then he was then!

Bill decided to take up Joey's old room, placing his suitcases inside there. Even if William threw a fit, he would not change rooms. That stinky brother of his could sleep outside for all he cared!

When he came out, he saw his brother staring up at the stairs, holding an unbelievable amount of suitcases on his arms, back, and some slung around his neck… It looked weird.

"Did you see a monster?" Bill boredly asked. He was just staring, and with all those suitcases, blocking the hallways!

"No, but why am I sleeping in the attic?"

"We have to do repairs anyways, and besides, we both get our own rooms this way. You're loud and annoying."

"Yeah well you're nerdy and…. and….!"

"I'm what?" Bill taunted, broadly grinning. William was never the smartest of the two, and sometimes he was convinced that he could easily pass for another brainless citizen of Gravity Falls.

"A big…. Yogurt straw!"

"Oh no," he replied in monotone, "how utterly offending to my pride. Get moving you goof-off."

With a light push, William started going up the steps, muttering curses, probably all directed to Bill.

Well, moving day was stressful and tiring, anybody would know that. Moving all of William's game systems and all of Bill's projects and work over the supernatural… Could never tell which one had more stuff.

When Bill arrived back at their old car (passed onto them by their Uncle also) he found William had actually gotten all of his stuff on the first trip and all that was left was his own stuff. Good. That made things easier.

He grabbed the box full of papers and started back towards the Shack, wondering how exactly they were going to fix it back up and attract tourists again.

 _Is it even possible?_ He mused quietly to himself. If they fell for this place once, they'd probably fall for it again.

As he moved back into his old room, he looked around for the cabinet he had saw in here before. It'd help with keeping all of this stuff in. As soon as he opened the old dusty thing, he frowned down at the letter attached to it. Receipt maybe? Tag? Uncle Joey always kept those in case he decided to return it. But as he tore it off and set the box inside, his eye looked at it and widened upon seeing that it was neither of those things.

 _ **It's you who found this, right Bill? I knew you'd probably get this room once I passed on. With your lame feeling of needing to be superior to your sibling-**_ Bill frowned at this— _ **and all. Anyway, remember how easily you caught on and studied the creepiness of this place? Yeah, it's all real. Sorry I couldn't tell you before, I thought maybe you'd stay away from it if I tried to convince you it wasn't real. I need you to remember this code; A 1 B C-3. You better lock this in your mind well because I need you to throw away this letter as soon as you finish reading it. That code goes to the vending machine, and since I couldn't stay around to finish what I was working on down there, I need you to. Do NOT tell William about this. It's only for YOU Bill. Got it? To be frank, William is not so careful and responsible, and will jump at making that place a hang-out for him and his friends or something like that. I'm trusting you with this. Be careful. Make sure no one watches you enter and leave. Good bye Bill. Take care.**_

" 3?" He whispered to himself. He had to admit, this letter seemed a little unnerving, if not utterly disturbing. If this was all real, then his Uncle lied to them for 8 years? Wouldn't be the first time, but was still a little disappointing. And somewhat exciting. It'd be nice if he had something else to do then wait and work on the Shack, and he had learned every little bit and piece of that old journal he found years ago.

He crumpled the note in his hand, just in case William came down and saw the paper. Or rather, it was daylight outside, maybe it wasn't the wisest decision to do this now. But the code was already engraved into his head, he didn't need it anymore! Without hesitation he lit the thing on fire with a lighter from his pocket, letting go as it reached the very tips and turned into ash before it touched the ground.

Now that that was taken care of, there was still a last box of his in the car. It was mainly more papers and findings, but also the journal. It's not like he needed to carry it around everywhere, he knew everything about it. Every page was recorded, anyway. So as he grabbed the last box, slammed the door shut, and strode back to the Shack, the smirk never left his face.

* * *

It had been about two months since then. Surprisingly, Bill hadn't touched that old vending machine. He decided it could wait, after all, it'd be better to get the repairs done first and the Shack restocked first. William mainly took part in getting the stocks and creating the attractions, it seemed more in his corner. But it helped that most of the attractions were actually hidden up in the attic for reuse for whenever.

By now the Mystery Shack was stocked and ready for tourists, but they would need to go advertise it. The repairs were completed, the wood reinstalled in the roof and rickety, breaking old floors. The place was completely clean and fixed, and reminded them much of the cozy small home from when they were kids.

"Are you going to advertise, Billy?"

Bill looked up from what he was writing and glared. "Don't call me that. And why can't you do it?"

"I restocked the whole gift shop and set up the attractions. This place is ready to go because of me!"

"I reinstalled every single piece of wood in that old-leaking roof, replaced every floorboard, including the attic, and cleaned every room. Your point?"

"Just go do it! Damn, it's not going to kill you!"

"It won't kill you either."

"I'm asked nicely! I have a date today; I need to get ready to go!" The twin whined.

Bill ran a hand through his blonde-yellow hair and sighed, moving up from his chair. Of course. William always seemed to have some reason or another. While they were similar in looks, William's hair was actually much lighter, and had two working eyes. William was also outgoing and social, much more so than Bill. Bill was only social when he had to be, and even then was independent. He preferred doing things on his own rather than with others. Bill was also slightly different in looks; his blonde hair basically an unnatural yellow and one of his eyes permanently dysfunctional since birth.

"I suppose. Hand over the signs," Bill said, holding out his arms. It was August, and he was wearing his usual sweaters. It was an item of clothing he had always liked, strangely. He preferred sweaters to anything, and they always had to be yellow. They were always custom made for him, usual ordering an eye of providence in the middle or a brick-patterned one.

William grinned goofily at him as he shoved all of the signs onto his arms and running back to the attic, calling back a thanks. Bill rolled his eyes and left the shack placing one on the front of their lawn and venturing out into the forest, moving along passageways people usually took and towards the town.

As he went into the forest deeper, and the surroundings got a little darker (but still bright) he proceeded to place signs along the way, thinking back to the note he found months ago. His mind did venture there a lot. Maybe tonight he would go and finally see what was down there…

A pig's squeal got his attention and he frowned, turning around and looking everywhere for the source. His head tilted a little in confusion. No, he could've just heard it wrong. Pigs wouldn't be out in the forest; he had never encountered any sort of hog or pig before.

He just shrugged and kept moving, not at all bothered by it. He didn't ever feel scared, if not a little intrigued and fascinated. It was Gravity Falls, maybe he actually did hear it?

Then there was also a little girl's laughter that stopped him in his tracks. Once more he looked around slowly, his eye catching every detail and looking for something other than usual forestry to connect to the sound. But once more, there wasn't a single thing there. The forest was still light, and even he would be able to see something had it been there.

Maybe someone was fooling with him? Why would a child be by themselves in the woods? Even parents here weren't crazy enough to let their kid wander alone.

He moved on, actually moving a little quicker. The two sounds were annoying, because they actually just kept _repeating._ The little girl's laughter and the pig squealing happily, together, separate, just again and again. Sometimes it would go quiet when he snarled for _someone_ to stop messing with him and it was getting irritating, before starting back up, a little louder than the last.

Finally, he slammed the signs down, turning around abruptly, the sounds coming to a halt with him. He was beyond pissed, and with these noises, it seemed like the walk seemed to drag on forever!

"Stop repeating on a loop! Come out! I am seriously angry, don't make me have to come searching for you damnit!"

He waited for a minute. One minute. Two minutes. Even 10, just standing there, eye catching everything that moved; leaves rustling, rabbits that jumped in the distance. Even a doe moved behind the trees. But no little girl and pig.

With an annoyed huff, he was a little calmed down and picked up the signs and started onwards once more. The sounds didn't repeat, and didn't start up again. Not even the faintest sound. He smiled to himself. Hopefully he scared whatever it was off.

But it wasn't over. More noises started; none of them the joyous girl and pig. Oh no, he would've preferred that than the noises that started now. It was _screaming._ Sounds that sounded unnatural for human vocal chords; noises you would only make if you were being brutally murdered or tortured. A girl's sobs and screams along with a boy's, and what could've sounded like an old man's.

Thoroughly disturbed by this new onslaught of sounds, he started sprinting the rest of the way, trying to ignore how the boy's and man's voices eventually died out, and only heard the little girl crying. It was horrifying now, and he already hated this forest. This had _never_ happened before. Never. Not in the 8 years he had been here.

Eventually, he was out of the forest and ran into town, stopping once he reached the park. He panted, dropping down to the ground and lying there, trying to decipher what just happened. He dreaded going back through that creepy forest. He'd call William to pick him up. He was used to screaming, but only for a minute or two, basically because William used to do it to annoy him when they were kids. But on and on and in that tone like that, and for it to be endless, no less! It was something no human would like to venture through. Not even haunted houses could rival the horror he felt there.

Bill shrugged off what happened, and tried to shove it out of his mind, eventually forgetting about it as he advertised with more interest, only doing so to keep his mind from venturing back to those screams. They were eventually tucked far back, and they never again crossed his mind.

And he _did_ meet up with William and went home with him that night.

* * *

Bill fell asleep surprisingly easily that night. It wasn't as if what happened in the forest would phase him all night, in fact, he just kept in mind that he wouldn't be going back. That easy right?

Not really.

The second his eyes shut and he fell unconscious, a sickening feeling started in his head, a feeling he didn't know he could feel when he was dreaming.

" _I guess I'm just irresistible!"_

The noise resounded in the hollow black space he was in, and he frowned at the voice. It was, once more, that familiar voice of the annoying little girl from the forest. Problem—why was he hearing it here? And a sentence that voice hadn't said, no less? It made somewhat sense that it would be in the forest; he just concluded it was haunted. But maybe it followed him?

"Am I being haunted? Is that what's going on here? Go away. Pass on. Seriously, I don't think you want to hook onto me, little girl," Bill called out boredly. This issue was getting annoying, and he had better things to do than be haunted at the moment.

" _Jeff turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total jerks!"_

Gnomes? Well, he faced those. Annoying as hell, especially Jeff. The similarity of their voices made him want to snap the little ugly-beard-man-thing in half. He was also just really stupid.

" _And I will have a- Grappling hook!"_

What girl wanted a grappling hook? By the sheer child-like innocence of the girl's voice, he figured maybe they'd be into dolls. Good decision, though.

At this point he just sat down and sighed. He'd probably be here a while…

" _Look—the text! It's glowing in the black light!"_

Bill's eyebrow rose. Invisible ink writing? It's what that sounded like. The only text that showed in black light was invisible ink. The journal had every secret written in invisible ink. Just a coincidence.

" _W-why won't you move…? H-hello? Answer me! P-please… D-Dipper…. Stan… Why aren't you b-b-breathing? PLEASE?"_

Bill flinched as the innocent little girl's voice reduced to a broken sob. Well… He could only assume people she knew died. If they weren't breathing… Or maybe they made it and she died? Either way, she was _definitely_ trying to communicate. And it would be useless; he didn't necessarily care nor did he have time to sort out her problems. He had other things to worry about.

Bill jumped straight up and out of bed when that girl's scream from the forest echoed around him once more, and his eye shot open with a groan. He was on the floor; legs entangled in the blanket still attached to the bed. He slowly moved out of them and stood up with an annoyed sigh. His eye shifted over to his digital clock; 6 AM. Slightly early for him, but really early for William. So his brother would still be sleeping.

He reached into his cabinet full of his papers and projects and grabbed the journal, shutting the cabinet and slipping on sandals before walking out of his room. As he moved towards the vending machine, he _actually_ heard the little girl from earlier whispering, but couldn't make out what she was saying. But once he reached the vending machine, the whispers were now full-out talking normally.

" _I think that's a GREAT idea!"_

" _Scout's honor!"_

" _I'm off to buy a huggy-wuggy- tummy-bundle!"_

" _Stan, I am never talking to you AGAIN!"_

" _But there's predators! And barbequers!"_

To him, it was a bunch of useless talking, probably her talking to friends or family from when she was alive. Something like that! It was just her past self talking. Did she used to live here?

 _Don't tell me Uncle Joey murdered her or something,_ Bill mused to himself. He highly doubted that; Uncle Joey just didn't have it in him to murder someone, and he had a soft spot for kids, anyway.

Bill pressed the keys hastily, the little girl's talking straying him off track. The name Stan was just familiar to him, and he could've swore the name Dipper was somewhere in his mind… And he didn't know why, he would definitely remember any dork unfortunate enough to have that name.

The second the keys were pressed, vending machine seemingly popped out of place and moved sideways, revealing a door-shape and a passageway.

He stared on in wonder, curious as to why his Uncle would've kept this a secret. Or why he had it in the first place. Having not expected a deep, dark passageway, he quickly rushed back to his room, grabbed a flashlight, and ran back. Switching it on, he stepped inside the shut the vending machine behind him.

It went on deeper than he expected. He figured it would have been some lame walkway to a lever which would give him something. No, he ended up going down some stairs and into an elevator. He clicked a random button (the only button) pointing down and felt a little uneasy as it creaked and slowly descended. He was only uneasy because he didn't know how old this was, and he didn't want it to suddenly break and he would fall to his death.

The girl's voice was still talking of course, but as the elevator started to descend lower, what she was saying was just getting darker.

" _I'm so sorry. Why are you dead? Come back. I still need you guys."_

" _I don't want to do that! Why can't I have another option!"_

" _I… I just want to save them…"_

" _Can't I just give you a limb or something? Or you can kill me and take my soul or something."_

" _Anything but that, I just want my family back!"_

Just when he thought it couldn't get any more disturbing, the elevator stopped, as did the screeching and sobbing voice. He happily stepped off, glad to be rid of that horrid situation. Flicking the flashlight around, he saw a light switch next to the elevator and flipped it, doubting it would work. To his utter surprise, the room lit up surprisingly bright. Too bright.

Bill squeezed his eye shut as the lights got brighter and brighter, and just when he thought they would burst, they dimmed down to a normal level. He opened his eye and looked around in shocked wonder. Not too far from him was a table, a broken picture of him and his brother from when they were kids resting on top of it. When he took a step forward, he heard a crack underneath his foot, and moved it, crouching down to see what he stepped on. Probably debris, it seemed to be all over the place down here.

No, it was another picture in a frame. Or at least he thought so. The frame and glass were basically broken trash by now, and there was only half a picture inside. It was a boy, smiling giddily. He couldn't make out who or what was next to him, seemed what looked like blood blotched it all out. Was it his uncle's blood? Or maybe the girl's… No, that would still mean Uncle Joey would have murdered her.

Bill moved towards the table, studying the broken lamp and strange screen, all kinds of button and switches all over it. He randomly pressed a yellow one, wondering if anything would happen. He, of course, assumed nothing would. Everything down here seemed too old and broken for anything to actually work. He was greeted with another surprise as a small drawer popped open from the ground next to his foot, and he bent over, picking up the object in it. The back covering looked extremely familiar, as did the texture.

His eye widened as he turned it over, that familiar golden hand on the front. But what confused him was the number 2 on it instead of a 3. So… There was more? Of course. He saw more creatures than what was inside of Journal 3, so maybe they recorded the rest in other journals. Bill steadily opened it, but regretted not bringing his flashlight with him. It would be nice to know what was _exactly_ on each page. He simply slipped it in his sweater pocket with his other one and moved on, finally reaching that large machine.

He stared up at it in absolute confusion, not understanding what it was or did. He curiously moved the lever, moving back as the giant buttons alongside the triangle lit up for a split second before going out with a whirring sound. He sighed, moving the lever back. Well, nothing down here was salvageable. His uncle only left him that one note for down here, but it said nothing about what to do when he got here. Just to finish working on something he couldn't.

With a frustrated snarl, he figured out he wanted him to finish this dumb machine. Of course! The most broken and worthless thing down here! He can't just work on something if he didn't know what it was supposed to do in the first place!

He stomped over to the elevator, planning to just go and get ready for the day. It was the official opening of the Mystery Shack, after all.

But as the elevator doors closed, he _knew_ he heard the little girl's voice telling him to wait.

* * *

Bill grunted as he sat down at the stool by the cash register, finally taking off the weird Mystery Shack hat and leaning against the counter. Quite a surprise; they were a little busy. Townsfolk seemed excited that the Mystery Shack was "back and all new!" Many apologized for their loss and things like that. Hopefully they would spread more word around. At least William knew how to ring up inexcusably high unaffordable prices. And townsfolk were also dumb enough to buy these high-priced stuff.

"Your pocket is bulkier than usual; watcha got?"

Bill was snapped from his thoughts by his brother. Ah, he noticed that. Well, Uncle Joey told him to keep that secret entry a secret, not the journal. And William seemed excited when they first found it.

"Another journal I found," Bill replied, taking out the 2 Journal and handing it to him. He scoped it out completely earlier with the black light, and there was nothing interesting; he had already documented and found most of them, all with William too.

The twin gasped and snatched the journal, turning the pages excitedly, reading over each page.

"It's nothing exciting, William. We already found all of those monsters."

Bill tapped his fingers on the desk boredly, waiting for his brother to look through the journal. He'd be disappointed like he was, anyway. He looked up as the turning of the pages stopped and rose his eyebrows to see his brother stopped midway, eyes wide in his mouth hung open a little.

"What is it? There's nothing in there!"

"No, you need to look back over it again! There's a summon on this page idiot!"

Bill looked perplexed as he took the journal back, looking over the page his brother was staring at. How did he miss this page?

"Oh… I see it. Beware of Mabel Pines?" He read aloud.

Seriously, how did he miss this page? He probably skimmed through some parts… Or it was stuck to a page? But anyway, it was a slightly crumpled page, not as neat in comparison to the rest of the pages. There was even some blood at the bottom of it! The top read " **BEWARE OF MABEL PINES"** in dark, splotchy ink. There was a shooting star drawing in the middle of the page, and the words "DO NOT SUMMON" written beside it. The Weaknesses tab was left blank, as most were because you needed the black light, and a small description, but the corner was torn so some words were missing.

" _Beware of Mabel Pines, the most powerful monster I've ever seen! She may be normal and giggly at first, but further inves-_ that she is actuall-_"_

"Too much of it is missing by the tear," William said, having read it over his shoulder.

"I can see that," Bill replied, irritated by his lack of space.

"But the author didn't leave a script to summon this thing by."

Bill's eyebrows furrowed. That was true, and there was no more space on the page to write it. He brought out the small black light and flipped it on, bringing it over the page. William (irritating Bill further) cooed at what they saw, but Bill was a little confused. The Weakness tab was _still_ left blank. He assumed they just never figured it out, a weird contrary to everything else.

But over the author's description of the monster, there was the actual spell to summon it, right over it. It would've never been found without the black light.

"Summon it! Summon it!" Will chanted in his ear.

Bill glared at his twin. "Why would we do that?"  
"What if it grants our wishes or something?! We could wish for millions of dollars!"

Bill rolled his eyes at him. Thinking about money at a time like this. "The author said it was the most powerful monster they've ever faced; I doubt they're keen to hearing us demand it to give us _anything."_

"Maybe the author didn't know what they were doing! It's worth a try!"

Frowning, Bill contemplated this. The only monster in this new journal they've never found, he would indeed like to know what it was. But the author described it as dangerous, and they still knew more than Bill did (even though he didn't want to admit it).

Bill shut the journal and put it back in his sweater pocket, along with his black light. "It isn't worth it; we'll only summon it if we need to."

William pouted at him. "Party-killer."

Bill just shoved his face away from him and stood up, wandering back to his room. He'd take a nap for now; he woke up rather early today…

He shifted back into sleep, but was standing in the middle of the black space once more. He silently pleaded that the girl's voice wouldn't come back, he'd had enough of it for his whole life.

It seems his wishes went ungranted, because she spoke again, but this time to him _directly._

" _Would you like me to go away?"_

"Please," Bill replied bluntly.

The voice was silent for a moment, and Bill wondered if that was all they had to say, and it would finally be gone.

" _Then summon that monster in the journal."_

Bill immediately felt a cold shudder run down his back. This was… really, _really,_ disturbing.

"Have you been watching me?!"

" _I have been beside you this whole time. I'll go away, just please,_ _ **please, summon that monster. It will NOT hurt you unless you attack FIRST."**_

"And why would I believe you? Stalkers don't ever learn their lesson." But the information was nice, even from a creepy ghost. If what that ghost was saying was true, then if he summoned that monster, it would be a win-win situation.

" _Trust me, I don't want to stay around_ _ **you**_ _any longer either."_

Bill scoffed, a little irritated by the ghost's statement.

"You stalked me first, little girl!"

" _Look, will you summon that monster or not?"  
_ Bill sighed, looking back over his options. If that ghost was right and the monster wouldn't hurt him without being attacked first, and also summoning it would grant him something and the ghost would go away, then he would definitely win a bargain here. But if they were wrong and just wanted to get him killed, well… He was screwed.

"Arg… Damnit! Sure, I'll summon that stupid monster!"

The ghost actually giggled, and his dream started fading away.

" _Thank you. By the way, my name's Mabel Pines!"_

Mabel….?

But that was the name of the—

* * *

Bill awoke with a jolt, just when he was about to finish his thought. He sprang up by a shadow in the room—immediately assuming it was a thief, even those were in Gravity Falls—and was about to completely shatter their face when he was finally able to make out their short, shaggy hair and he frowned.

"Will, what are you doing in here?!"

Said person immediately turned around with a start and tightened his grip on what he was holding. Not much of a surprise to Bill, it was journal 2.

"Okay, look! Even though I know you said not to summon it, and also you know that I know now that I'm not supposed to summon it, and I also know that it could be dangerous and you also know—"

"Get to the point," Bill interrupted with a growl.

"We should summon it anyway!" Will blurted out.

The room was dead silent for a moment, the air tensing around William. He feared his brother's wrath like no other, and he'd probably smash his face for trying to do it without permission.

"Alright, hand it over."

"No! I'm summoning it!"

"No, I'll do it, now hand it over."

"Oh, don't you- wait what?"

With a roll of his eyes, Bill took the book from his twin and grabbed his black light, a paper, and a pen, and walked out, only turning slightly to motion for Will to follow. Ever so happy that his brother was finally taking a turn for the fun side, the brother skipped on after him.

"What made you change your mind?"

"Does it matter?"

Not wanting to change Bill's mind and end up back at square one, the brother quickly replied with a "never mind."

The brothers soon arrived outside, their spot for summoning being placed around back of the Shack. Bill wrote the incantation on paper, translating the words in his head as he went. It was a quite weird incantation when switched over to English, one he would have to keep around for later.

"What is that? Spanish?"

Will was on the receiving end of a sharp glare and put his hands up defensively. "It was just a guess!"

"Yes, well, you're wrong. It's Latin."

"Why? Why not Spanish, Chinese, French?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Bill snarled back, quieting his brother.

Clapping his hands, Bill studied the written words carefully, pronouncing each word in his head as to not screw up when he started speaking them aloud. Something else bothered him, though. There was no _actual_ set up for this. No creating a circle of some sort, no candles, nothing. All it had was the weird incantation.

To him, this just screamed sketchy.

"Alright, I guess we'll start now," Bill announced.

"Yay! Can I say it?"

Bill gave a good hearty laugh for a while, utterly pissing the other twin off, and suddenly stopped, placing a hand on Will's shoulder, and saying, "No. You'll screw up the first word."

"Hey, whoa, what?! I'm capable!"

"Yes, of trickery. Now shush!"

Bill stepped forward, and gripped the page tighter. Damn, that little girl better be right! And besides, would the thing even come out in broad daylight? Seriously, the Mystery Shack had closed around noon, and his nap was only an hour. It was still pretty bright. Well, if it didn't need some proper circle and candles, it would have to come out in daylight. Or would it die? Was it a creature that died in sunlight?

Well, he'd do it anyway, and if it died, then he saved the world from a potentially dangerous creature.

"Dirigentes stella exire beluae invocabo et exaudies me petit!"

The second the final word left his mouth, the whole world seemed to freeze. The wind stopped blowing and the leaves stopped rustling, but nothing appeared.

And they waited for a good 5 minutes.

"Nothing happened!" Will yelled into his ear.

Jumping away from the screeching voice, Bill slammed his hand into the back of his brother's head and screeched right back at him; "I can see that!"

"Hey-hey! Don't fight! Respect your siblings you grump!"

Before he could register who said that, a hand smacked the back of his head, an offense done to get back at him for smacking his brother.

Bill turned and his eye widened at what he saw next. He was prepared for a _monster,_ not this!

It was a young brunette woman, two sparkling brown eyes and a pout on her face. A black hair band connected to a miniature top-hat rested upon her hair, which went as long as her lower back. She wore a bow-tie and magenta suit that changed into two long coat tails at the bottom, colored shooting stars decorating it. She wore black pants and black shoes.

What was in her arms unnerved him to no end.

A happy, fat, pot-bellied pig sat gently in her arms, chewing on her sleeve.

William, being the careless idiot he was, spoke up first; "We didn't summon a monster, we summoned a hot chick!"

While the (floating) woman blushed, Bill elbowed his brother in the ribs.

"If I didn't have a girlfriend, I would totally ask for your number," Will managed to wheeze out before being elbowed once more.

"Pardon my brother for being a complete _idiot,_ " he hissed out at the end. He glared at his twin and the other shrank back.

"No no no, I've seen much worse. But hello, thank you for summoning me! And if you found my page, that must mean you knew Uncle Joey right? If not, I'm inclined to erase your mind of our meeting and destroy the page you found me on."

Bill tilted his head at the woman. _This_ person was dangerous? Hard to believe, he could strangle her very easily.

"We're related, and unfortunately, he passed away a while back."

The woman smiled a little bitterly at the information and slowly planted herself on the ground, setting her pig by her feet.

"Yes, yes, I know, I know everything!"

"Everything?" Bill wondered. If that was so, then she could inform him who wrote these damned journals, and even ask why the hell that machine was under the vending machine, what it did, and how to fix it.

"Of course! But to get any of my knowledge, I'm restricted by a contract. You have to make a deal of sorts with me, nothing in life is free, after all!"

At this Bill inwardly scowled. She did have a point, but who knew what supernatural creatures wanted.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't introduce myself! I'm Mabel, and this little guy here is Waddles! I called him that because he waddles!"

Bill's lips formed into a thin line. Oh boy. She was indeed the giggle and happy type, a contrary to other monsters and creatures. Who knew? What if he made a deal by giving her a stuffed animal?

"You have one?!" Mabel suddenly blurted out, her eyes buzzing with excitement.

What in the hell was she suddenly so happy for?

The woman bit her lip and smiled apologetically, moving back a little.

"I can read minds," she informed.

Ah, so that was what happened.

"You want a stuffed animal?"

"Yes, and in return, I'll answer one of your questions."

"One?!" Bill sputtered out.

"Yes, one stuffed animal equals one question. But depending on the question, my contract also restricts me to let you off easy, and you'll have to offer for what it's worth."

"Do I even exist in this situation?" William wondered aloud.

Seeing as she had left the poor man unattended, she moved over to him and stretched out her hand.

"Nice to meet you William! The information I collected about you tells me that you are not the brightest of the two, kind of like me! You also don't seem to have as much questions for me!"

William's face became scarlet with embarrassment, having been told he wasn't as smart as his brother. It wasn't really a surprise, but having that fact pointed out all the time made him angry and embarrassed. And the woman was right, he didn't have anything necessarily worth trading stuff up for to ask or have. He already had the woman of his dreams and a fair-paying job here; what else did he need?

Bill put his arm in front of his brother and pushed him and himself away from her, eyeing her in suspicion.

"Information you collected?" He quoted. "Why do you know so much about us?"

"I told you, I know everything!"

Bill rolled his eye, and turned to his brother, leaning to whisper in his ear. "Since you don't have anything to say, go back inside for now."

"What? Are you icing me out?!"

"Yes. Now shoo."

With a shove, William stumbled back towards the Shack and stomped back inside, not hesitating to glare at him first.

With a huff, Bill turned back to the woman who was now petting her pig as he ate the grass. His mind was still unnerved about the pig and the woman together. It's what he heard in this forest, a little girl and a pig.

Did they have some connection?

That's when his mind reeled; his dream. That little girl told her to summon this woman, and before he woke up, said her name was Mabel….

"Mabel Pines?" Bill asked hesitantly. It was a long shot, but decided to ask anyway.

At the name "Pines" the woman froze and the pig stopped chewing for a second. How the air suddenly felt suffocating made Bill take a step away from them, but still didn't revoke what he said. Clearly, it meant something if it had this type of effect.

"Yes, that… That would be me. How did you get that name?"

One of Bill's eyebrows rose and he stared at her curiously. "A little girl told me her name was Mabel Pines."

"Little girl? I don't recall ever seeing you. Must have been somebody else," she dismissed.

His mouth formed into a frown, but he filed away what just happened for later. There was just something odd about the duo. There was no way there was another girl in the world whose name was Mabel Pines _and_ she owned a pig. There had to be some sort of connection to her and the ghost, because the ghost had been the one to inform him about this woman, anyway. But he couldn't piece together what it meant.

And why did he care so much anyway? He blamed his love of the supernatural and the tendency to learn every secret of every creature out there.

"Why is there a machine below the vending machine?"

The woman instantly covered his mouth with her hand and shushed him with a finger to her lips.

"Don't say that here. Let's go somewhere more private."

When she said this, she snapped her fingers and…

They appeared in that secret base below the vending machine. He stared in wonder. She could teleport? Or maybe she had magic of all sorts. So they stood there, him, her, and her pig. The pig was actually the first to move, walking over to that bloody picture and broken frame he stepped on earlier that morning. Picking up the broken picture and frame in his mouth, he trotted back over to his owner and she stared at him with a tilted head.

She reached down and took it, standing back up to inspect it. Mabel stared on for a few seconds, a vacant look in her eyes, before instantly burning it, frame, glass, and all. At the motion he became more perplexed. Did she have relation to the boy in the picture? Who knew.

Regardless, Bill moved forward and walked alongside her in a strange quiet, both silently moving to the unfinished machine. While he stopped beside the lever, and Waddles stopped with him, she moved forward, reaching the large triangle and running her hand along it.

Finally, she disappeared and reappeared next to him, her earlier demeanor from before seemingly completely gone.

"So, you gonna' fix this?" She asked happily.

"It's one of the things I need to ask you," he sighed, "I don't know how. Uncle Joey didn't leave instructions, only told me to finish what he couldn't."

"Finish what he couldn't?" She echoed. Even though she said this with a cute tilt of her head, he saw what seemed like sadness form in her eyes for a second.

"Yes. I need to know why it's here, how to fix it, and what it will do."

At the information she leaned forward a little, that smile still plastered on her face. "I can help you with one of those, and might just be inclined to answer why it's here, but the third one will cost you your life."

Bill glared her down, using his advantage of being taller than her to intimidate her somewhat, which worked because she seemed to back off a little.

"My life? That price for answering that third question would be my life?"

Differing from how she was usually happy, she returned his glare and strictly said; "It will. Prices range on from what _I_ want, and if _I_ have to answer that then _I_ would want you dead afterwards. That is, unless you can fix the machine."

They had a small glaring contest for a few seconds before Bill sighed and ran his hand through his hair. This was so very frustrating; things just weren't going as he hoped.

"Okay, I think I want to know _why_ it's here first."

Mabel nodded, the smile returning to her face. "Alright! The price is a good new pair of shoes! These are so worn out!"

Bill glanced down at her shoes, seeing they were _indeed_ worn out and lost some color, looked back up at her and smirked, holding out his hand to hers, which were encased in magenta flame. He didn't have the fear of them burning him, he knew she wasn't going to randomly burn his hand off. How would he fix the machine then?

"Deal!"

They shook hands and Mabel smiled. "Do I get my shoes before or after?"

"After; we'd have to go together to get them and I'd rather do this while we are down here."

"Ok!" She chirped, "We'll just add it to your tab!"

 _Tab?_ Bill thought. Okay. He had a tab. No problem. It wasn't like he'd suddenly not get her the shoes. She was still a 'presumably dangerous' creature, and would most likely murder him like she did to that picture if he didn't return the favor.

"The machine is down here for the role of bringing a little girl's family back to her."

Bill listened, waiting for more, the crucial information. But when she stopped there his face heated up with anger. She couldn't have been finished explaining! That would make no sense, then! That's what the old man wanted him to work on?! No wait, why did Uncle Joey even need that in the first place?! What, was that little ghost girl haunting him and telling him to get her family back?! Is this some machine to bring back the dead?

"That is way too vague, damnit! Why would my Uncle need that?!"

"That falls under 'What is this machine for,' and I will personally kill you if you want me to answer. Otherwise, you can ask how to fix this machine and I will help you."

Bill ran his hands down his face in an attempt to calm his nerves. Well this was just great. So he couldn't know why his Uncle would need this dumb machine until he fixed it! That made no sense! What was the point in fixing something if in the end, it did nothing worthwhile?!

"How do I fix this damn machine?" He finally asked.

"For this I would like 40 chocolate bars, 4 stuffed animals, 4 dresses, 4 headbands, 4 of your sweaters, and finally I want to play 4 games at the Gravity Falls fair."

"Why is everything in 4s?"

"4 is my favorite number!"

"And that's hundreds of dollars!"

"That's because I am going to guide you on how to fix it and get you the necessary items. Deal or no deal?"

Once more, she held out a magenta flamed hand to him, eyes shining with expectancy. She looked like she seriously wanted every single thing on there.

Sighing, Bill shook her hand, sealing the deal and the fact that all of his hard-earned cash would now go into buying her useless junk.

"You know it'll take me a week or more to earn up money for all of that, right?"

"I figured," she sighed, still smiling slightly. "But I can wait. This is also all on your tab, so we can just go ahead and get started, I guess."

"Alright, where do we start?"

Mabel turned her head and looked at the current progress on the machine. Well, everything was hooked up together and already built, and the circle in the middle of the giant triangle was there…

 _You really couldn't finish it, could you Joey?_

Before she let her thoughts dwell more on the deceased man, she nodded as she pieced together what would be needed first.

"Which Journals did Joey have?"

"He had the second one."

"That's no good. We need three and one."

"I have the third."

Her eyes turned to him, wide and sparkling with awe. "Really? You found it! I've been looking for years!"

Mabel waved her hand, a journal appearing in it. To his utter surprise, it had a 1 on the front, and seemed in better condition than both of his.

"Where did you get that?!"

"I've had this one."

"Why?"

"Your tab is already full and you don't need to add another."

"What? Why is that question so secretive?"

"I don't let in secrets about me without a major price."

Rolling his eye, he took the first journal and flipped through it, once more recognizing the creatures as ones he already saw… And then that one page with just random drawings on it. It was familiar because the other two journals had that, too.

Striding over to the old table, he set 1 down (and still on those pages) and 2 and 3, flipping both to the pages. His mind clicked as he realized they all went together, and set up 1 and 2 sitting up, and 3 on the bottom… And now... He realized. It looked exactly like the machine.

"Took you long enough," Mabel finally said, smiling.

He turned to her and gestured to the books. "How does this help anything? He already set up the machine."

"There are numbers and codes needed to be input, and they are on the machine set-up."

Bill turned back towards the journals, seeing what she meant. There were numbers in rings around all the pieces of the machines. But he _still_ didn't understand something.

"How did Uncle Joey build this machine if he didn't have all 3 journals?"

"Because he was not the one who built it," she muttered. Regardless of whether he was supposed to hear it or not was unknown to him, but he did hear it anyway.

If his uncle didn't build it, who did?

He decided not to think about it too much for now, and simply sat down at the table, messing around with the screen on it to see if it worked. To his surprise, it turned on, and he watched as the machine set-up came up, empty spaces on 3 parts. The part that journal 2 covered was already in there, and he supposed that his Uncle did this.

"For today we'll focus on just inputting the codes, okay Bill?"

Bill decided to ignore the thrill of his name passing her lips for now and began setting up the machine codes.

* * *

"What did you do yesterday with _Mabel,_ " William purred the next day, teasing his brother about it with a suggestive tone.

Bill glared at him from the register and threw a magic eight ball at him, hitting him square in the forehead, sending him plummeting to the floor.

"Nothing, for your information," Bill replied with a scowl on his face.

He was given the shock of his life (not that he'd admit it) when Mabel suddenly appeared next to him, wearing the same attire from yesterday, but lacking her pet pig.

"Did someone say my name?"

"A minute ago, you arrived too late," Bill informed, smirking a little.

"Aww, man. Always missing out on the fun… Welp, what are we doing today, Billy?"

From the floor, they both heard William laugh, and Bill glared at her.

"Don't call me that. And I'll tell you later."

William abruptly sat up, eyes wide, and said; "Another day with her? You really are doing something sketchy with her, aren't you?!"

Bill snarled at his brother and made a rude hand gesture to him, clearly unamused with his actions.

William soon stood up off the floor and flipped the "open" sign to "closed", and decided to just walk back up to the attic without any more input.

Taking off his lame Mystery Shack hat and ruffling back his hair, Bill stood up and stretched (nearly hitting Mabel in the face) and walked over to the vending machine, but before he could punch in the numbers, Mabel grabbed his hand.

Bill looked over at her with his eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"Don't. It's still broad daylight. Let's teleport!"

Just like yesterday, Mabel snapped her fingers and they both appeared in the base below the vending machine; their set-up still from where they had left it last night.

"What else is there to do, Mabel? We already put in the codes."

Mabel smiled wider as he spoke her name, the sheer giddiness of hearing her name spoke after so, so long was enthralling

"It seems, since your Uncle did most of the work, we only need the fuel."

"Got it. What does it run on? Gasoline? Diesel? Oil?"

"Radioactive Waste!"

"WHAT?!"

Bill turned to look at her in surprise and horror. Radioactive waste?! Where in the hell were they supposed to get that? That's just… Impossible. They couldn't get that. And why would it need that? Again, this all hooked back to what exactly this machine was supposed to do. What was it functioned for that needed Radioactive Waste?

"Where are we supposed to get that?!"

Mabel put up her hands as to calm him, the smile still on her face. "I got it covered, I told you I'd get the items for you!"

She snapped her fingers, and suddenly, buckets that were yellow with a "Radioactive Warning" label on them were placed all around them, along with a pair of gloves, a yellow suit, and a gas mask.

Bill still stood there with his jaw dropped, and when he finally snapped to, he asked; "How did you get all of this?"

Mabel's smile broadened, clear mischief in her eyes, "A good magician never reveals his tricks!"

Rolling his eye, he moved to the suit and gloves, slipping them on first before realizing something.

"Why isn't there gloves, a suit, and gas mask for you?"

"Because I don't need them."

"Because you can't die or are immortal or something?"

"I _am_ immortal, but I don't need them because I said I'd guide you and get the items, not help you with it!"

At this his mouth formed into a straight line, and he silently finished putting on the suit and slipped on the gas mask.

When he was done, he moved towards the first barrel, but turned to her before lifting it.

"Where do I empty this in at?"

At his question, Mabel looked around a bit, searching for the correct part. It had been awhile since she'd remembered the works and pieces of the actual machine, it'd been way too long…

But she found the port, anyway, and directed him over to it. Feeling a little superior at seeing him working and her just standing there confidently, she directed him over to it as he carried it. After boredly watching him get about 4 in, she decided to stir up some more noise. The waste smelled awful, anyway, anything to just get her mind away from it.

"Are you struggling to carry those?" Mabel taunted, a smile broad on her face.

Bill glared at her through his gas mask before replying. "No, but I am getting tired."

"Because they're heavy?"

"Of course they're heavy! These are _giant buckets!_ "

"Psssh. Weak," Mabel teased, sticking her tongue out at the man.

 _What a child._ "What right do you have to speak? Your arms are so small I doubt you can lift a milk jug."

Instantly getting defensive as her pride was insulted, Mabel straightened up, face turning red as she struggled to defend her damaged pride. "Yeah, well, well…"

"Well?" Bill smiled, although she couldn't see it, at her small struggle. It was funny, really, she usually seemed so happy or calm that this was just a little more insight to what else she felt.

"Well… At least…. At least I don't have yellow hair! Yeah! Who has completely _yellow_ hair? It's like a Barbie doll!"

The man stuttered, it finally being his turn to be offended. Of all the things, why his hair? Not his eye? Anything else? His face turned red just as hers had, and he simply continued on, dreading the fact that there were 10 more barrels left.

The rest of the time went on in strange silence, Mabel having left at some point, stating that all they were doing that day was just unloading the barrels, and then she would see him tomorrow. She also happened to mention something about her pig probably eating her pillows? Weird.

But Bill was left to his own thoughts at this point, having not been able to really think about anything since Mabel was there. He didn't want to think something secretive or something similar and have her hear it.

He was curious about the woman, though. Anything of the supernatural intrigued him, and Mabel was no exception. Her origins were odd, and so was the way she acted. No matter how strange it seemed, he still thought that Mabel and that little girl were the same person. It just fit. He couldn't understand why or how it worked, and he really wanted to find out, but Mabel already practically told him that she'd dodge every personal question.

Wait, so if she wouldn't answer anything personal, is that why she wouldn't answer the question about what the machine did?

It was a long shot, but hit closer to home than he would ever know.

* * *

The next day was a rather slow start, him taking advantage of it being Sunday (and thus no work) and relaxing to ease his slightly sore muscles. What could he say, lifting over 10 barrels _really_ takes its toll on you.

He sat in the living room on the recliner, flipping through the TV channels. There was just nothing good on at the moment. William was out with his girlfriend, and he was pretty sure he'd see Mabel much later. It wasn't even noon yet.

Bill simply stopped at the News channel and set the remote down, interested at what was "breaking news," and so important. Usually, the News only revolved around Gravity Falls, but it seemed that it was national news today. Oh good. An emergency is definitely what he needed right now.

"Attention US civilians: Exactly 15 barrels of Radioactive Waste were stolen from FBI headquarters."

The man's eyes widened, and slowly straightened up, turning the volume up at the same time.

"The barrels are yellow, a black warning symbol on the front. If you see anything like this, please contact the police. We encourage you to watch out for anything like this. Now a word from a Government Agent; Agent Powers."

"We have no clue how these could've been stolen; our security cameras show nothing. They just seemingly disappeared into thin air. We don't know how this could've happened, but we will continue searching."

Bill stared, a dreadful feeling settling in his stomach. This was not good. What if they suspected him? What if this linked to him and his brother? It would be all his fault.

No…

It was Mabel's!

 _Mabel_ said she would get the items for them! How did this have anything to do with _her_ getting them?! If things went on like this, him and his brother could be in jail, or worse!

He abruptly stood up, hardly feeling the dull pain his arms gave him. Shutting off the TV, he called for the culprit for all of this;

"MABEL!"

As quick as the name had been called, the said person appeared next to him, her normal happy-go-lucky look on her face. Cheerful as ever, and seemingly oblivious to his apparent anger, chirped; "You called?"

"Yes. What. The. Hell. Have. You. Done?!"

Startled by how the anger was directed at her, she stopped floating and stood neatly on the ground, a confused look replacing her normally happy one. Why was he mad at her? And, in the very short time she's known him, has never looked so angry.

And was that some fear she detected?

"What did I do?"

"Oh, you know _exactly_ what you did!"

Becoming even more perplexed by what she was being accused of, she asked once more what it was that he thought she did. This seemed to make him even angrier, and she shrank back at bit. Mabel was honestly a little scared of him, and it was weird, she was immortal and more powerful than he could ever dream to be, but in the moment, it _actually_ felt like he held more power.

Almost like it was natural…

"You _stole_ that Radioactive Waste! I thought you had it covered, you didn't tell me you would be stealing it!"

"I never said I wouldn't be stealing it. In fact, I never told you how I would be getting it."

Bill was at a complete loss of words. Well, that was true. She never did say _how_ she was getting it, she just said she would get it. Slapping a hand over his face, the man decided to calm down a bit. Even though it perplexed him very much, Mabel seemed very intimidated by him when he was mad. And having someone fear him…

Seemed oddly natural.

But despite this, he calmly asked; "Why?"

"I can't conjure unless it is asked of me, so I 'borrowed' it from another person. It wasn't like they were using it anyway."

"But you could get me and my brother killed."

"Or _you_ could for messing with it in the first place. But it disappeared without a trace, and I didn't link any of it to you guys, they suspect you of doing it as much as any other person in the world."

At this news he relaxed a little more. Well, despite knowing that he did do it, it made him feel better to know that he was just a guilty as other people.

Sighing, the blonde shut the TV off and threw the remote on the couch. He was already on his feet, might as well continue on. And now that she was here, they could start getting rid of some of his tab.

"Ok, Mabel, I'm going to forget this for a while and instead focus on getting you some stuff I said I'd get you. First off—things here. What were they again….?"

"14 of your sweaters."

The man sighed and met her serious face, but even he could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"I may not remember everything, but I know that you only wanted _four_ of my sweaters."

Mabel simply waved her hand away, dismissing his correction. "It's still a four isn't it?"

"Fourteen is _not_ a factor of four. Or multiple. Or anything."

"Well who decided to be Mr. I-know-everything today?"

"Oh it's not just today—it's _always!"_

Floating off the ground a little so Mabel was taller, she patted his head slowly, patronizing the man and reducing his superior smirk to a pitiful scowl.

"You _wish._ For it is me—Oh great Mabel—who has every knowledge in existence! BAHAHAHAHAH—Ah- ugh! Choking… Glitter...!"

To his surprise, the woman coughed up a handful of glitter, getting the sparkly substance all in his hair. He didn't know whether or not to feel disgusted; she had coughed on him, but it was just glitter.

Or rather, how does that happen…?

"How do you cough up glitter?" Bill asked, taking a step back and shaking all the glitter off of his head. Or _tried_ to; the glitter was basically stuck to his hair at this point.

"It's different compared to other times. Usually it's small plastic jewels… Maybe I shouldn't have eaten that knock-off brand of Smile-Dip."

"That stuff was banned in nearly every state a _long_ time ago."

"Which was why it was a knock-off brand," she finished, her mouth forming into a pout at remembering her favorite sugary food being banned.

Rolling his eye, the blonde started to move towards his room, glancing behind him to make sure Mabel was following. Sure enough, the woman was, so he continued. His room wasn't that far from the living room, and the walk was quiet and slightly uncomfortable, save for Mabel's shoes clacking along the wood floors.

Even without turning around, as they neared his room, he felt a suffocating air cover him from behind him, and knew it was coming from Mabel. Once it felt like she was _seriously_ burning two holes in his head with her eyes, he stopped abruptly and turned around.

Mabel was standing a little way away from him, eyes wide with visible dread and fear. This was only for a second, because once his gaze locked with hers, she guarded her feelings once more.

"What? Why'd we stop? Did you miss looking at my pretty face?" Mabel joked, trying to smooth out what just happened. Even _she_ knew that she didn't hide her expression fast enough. But it was impossible for her to cover it up so quickly; she just didn't expect him to turn around.

"No, why are you glaring _holes_ into the _back of my head?!"_

At the question she visibly tensed and the joking smile on her face became forced and less bright. Her stress was apparent and distress set in on her heart easily. Of course, only her stress was slightly visible. She wasn't opening up to him that easily.

"I didn't mean to! Let's just keep moving! We don't have all day, ya' know."

Seeing as she wasn't going to budge and went back to her happy phase, he shook his head and continued walking, arriving at the door soon enough. His door was left open, and he just walked right on inside, moving to his closet and expecting to see her next to him, but once he turned his head, she was standing still at the door, eyes wide, and what he could've detected was hurt in her eyes.

But it turned into horrified wonder as she asked quietly; "What happened to the stuff that was in here?"

Raising an eyebrow at her odd antics, he straightened up and replied, "It was Uncle Joey's and most of it was sold. The only thing that was left was this closet."

Mabel moved over to the closet, her hand gently pulling it open, revealing his clothes that were tightly packed inside.

But Bill remained confused and unnerved by her quiet stance; an odd contrary to what he'd seen so far. If he was anymore clueless, he wouldn't have known that she had _some sort_ of connection to this room. Maybe the house was familiar to her?

 _Of course not,_ Bill thought, dismissing his earlier question. _Since when do supernatural beings live in human houses? Much less, one who isn't from this dimension._

"Some do," Mabel said suddenly, making Bill freeze, "they'll live in houses on occasion. Some take on human forms, you really gotta learn more. Gravity Falls _is_ small, but there's much more supernatural than what's in that forest."

Brushing off the fact that his thoughts were read, he questioned; "What are they?"

"Your tab is _still_ full. I haven't gotten a single thing yet, Bill!"

Chuckling slightly, the man pointed to his closet, making her gaze travel back to his clothes, eyes immediately going to his sweaters…

They were all yellow.

Sighing, her head drooped and she turned her head to look at him, a deadpan look on her face.

"Bill, you have no sense of fashion."

Bill gasped and held his hand to his heart, and in fake-hurt replied; "How utterly offensive! I will let you know that yellow and black is a fashionable choice!"

Snorting, Mabel snidely replied, "For what? Bees?"

The blonde frowned and put his arms down, forcefully turning her shoulders to stare back at the sweaters. The brunette laughed and shrugged him off, simply grabbing the four on top. Well they were all the same anyway, might as well just get the first four.

She set them on one arm, and with the other held them up to look at them. To her surprise, they _did_ have patterns in them, but still, in yellow and black. One was black with yellow brick lines halfway down the arms and torso, and one other was vice versa. The third had an eye of providence in the middle of a yellow brick-lined sweater, and finally, the last was just plain yellow.

Slightly shaking her head, Mabel snapped her fingers and the sweaters disappeared. Bill silently wondered if she had sent them to somewhere unknown, or just banished them from existence. The thought humored him, and apparently the mind-reader was also finding it quite funny and giggled aloud.

Turning his head and sharply glaring at her, Bill snapped; "Can you _not_ read my mind for once?!"

Seeing as the joke no longer seemed funny, Mabel stopped giggling and turned to face him, a pout on her lips. "That takes the fun out of having powers to mind-read."

"Why can't you use it on someone else?"

"You, William, and Joey are the only people I've seen in… How long… Maybe a century. Or more. Probably a couple centuries… A dozen? Yeah. A dozen centuries. Which is probably something else in a more scientific term, but I could care less!"

Even though Mabel hadn't noticed her slip-up, Bill had. It was confirmed now for him—she knew his Uncle. And apparently his Uncle knew her, but said nothing about her… Probably didn't want him summoning her. The man had no clue; Mabel wasn't really a threat to him. Or anyone, for that matter. From what he'd seen, Mabel was probably always bubbly, and an angry or dangerous demeanor didn't really come from her.

Except for earlier when they entered this room.

The thought had been shoved away a little bit ago, but his thoughts were still twisting around the woman. He really would like to know about her. And who wouldn't? Mabel was intriguing, beautiful, and mysterious; everything Bill found wonderful about her.

After all, his favorite games were puzzles, and Mabel was a one-of-a-kind jigsaw puzzle.

He was snapped away from his thoughts at his name being shouted in his ear, and he immediately jerked away from the offender; I.e, Mabel. Bill's hand flew to his ear and rubbed it, feeling a strange ringing in it. He remained silent as he waited for the ringing to stop, while Mabel was laughing and laughing.

After the ringing finally stopped, his eyes were practically in slits as he hissed; "What is it?!"

Still cradling her stomach from how hard she was laughing, Mabel wiped a tear from her eyes and said as she smiled; "Is this all for today? Just the sweaters?"

"No, it's still early and the fair's open so we can go… I guess we'll get your 40 chocolate bars, 4 stuffed animals, 4 dresses, 4 headbands, and we'll play four games. Who knows how much this will cost me," he muttered at the end, but then said in a loud voice to completely grasp her attention, "BUT I don't know anymore because SOMEONE screamed in my ear, so I think I won't ever come to do that."

She abruptly stopped smiling and stood there, completely frozen, for what could've been a minute. Bill had a triumphant smirk on his face the whole time, his arms crossed as he waited for another reaction. Oh, and he got one, yes he did, and it unnerved him greatly. The woman's bottom lip trembled, and her eyes filled with tears as she stared up at him, a desperate sad look on her face.

"R-really? We- we aren't going any-anymore?"

Feeling the smirk fall off his face, Bill shifted on one foot and looked away, shutting his eyes. He wouldn't fall for it! His brother had done the _same_ thing to him countless times, and he wasn't going to be fooled anymore.

Eventually he heard her start sniffling and her shoulders started to shake like she was going to _seriously_ start bawling her eyes out. He opened his eye slightly and glanced at her, seeing her start to rub her eyes, and finally a sob escaped from his lips and with a huff he turned back to her and grabbed one of her wrists.

"Hey, hey, hey! Knock it off! I'm sorry, I was just kidding, okay?!"

The second the apology left his lips, she moved her other hand away and sighed, and his jaw dropped at seeing the actual lack of tears and such. But how….? Not even fake tears?

"Illusions," she stated, a devious smile on her face, "and girl tears are a girl's most powerful weapon! Hahaha!"

Letting go of her wrist and running a hand down his face, Bill took her other hand and led her down the hallways and to the front door, about to grab his keys but then stopped, cursing under his breath. William took the car with him that day… They'd have to go through the forest. Well, at least he had someone with him, it shouldn't be that bad. And if he heard the voices again, then he would ask if she heard them, too.

So the blonde simply shut the door behind him and they stepped outside, feeling a warm breeze blow onto them. Well, at least it was a nice day, not a single cloud in the sky. This way, the forest wouldn't be dark at all.

As he moved forward, he felt something on his hand and glanced down, seeing Mabel finally wrap her fingers on his hand to grasp it more firmly.

Well he totally forgot he grabbed her hand!

But seeing that embarrassed flush on her face as she looked anywhere but at him, he felt a small smile come to his face, and even a blush of his own come up. Her hand was soft and warm, a contrary to his calloused cold hand. And her hand was so small…

Before he could become any more interested in the fact that they were _only holding hands,_ he continued walking, leading the way down the path. It was a comfortable quiet, even though he kind of wanted her to say something, and the only sound was grass and leaves rustling, and the slight crunching of dirt under their feet.

 _It hasn't started yet… Maybe it won't start at all with Mabel with me… Or maybe I was just tired that day and heard things._

"What are you thinking about?"

Bill jumped a little, and sighed. At all times, why did she have to read his mind now? He didn't say it out loud for a reason!

"Sorry, it was so quiet that your thoughts were easily in the air."

The man shook his head. No it's fine. And something strange just happened the last time I walked here."

"Animals? Supernatural? Are there bunnies?!" She asked excitedly. They probably wouldn't come near them, but it'd be nice to see one of her favorite cuddly animals after so long.

"No. Don't worry about it, Mabel."

Surprisingly, the woman let it go, and they continued on, still holding hands and all. He hoped the rest of the walk would be quiet and peaceful, and if they heard screaming now, they'd be unnerved for the rest of the day.

But good things never did last.

It was a heart-wrenching wail that made them both jump and freeze in their tracks, but Bill was more surprised by the fact that _Mabel_ jumped, too. The woman never seemed afraid of anything. Except for him earlier, but that was understandable.

He was wrong, though, her eyes wide at the wailing that had suddenly came from nowhere, and he guessed it was a boy's. It sounded much like that boy's from last time… Maybe it was the same one.

But instead of asking where it was coming from, Mabel was simply frozen, eyes void of emotion, but wide open. He shook her by her hand a little, and once her eyes met his, she squeezed his hand, her body trembling.

This made the situation all the worse for him; seeing her scared out of her wits. So he finally asked the already-answered question; "Do you hear it?"

The brunette gave a shaky nod of her head, and his eye widened at seeing a tear fall down her face. Did the wailing unnerve her _that_ much? Or made or sad.

A part of him knew neither of these were it, and she was just _afraid._ That part of him knew that tear wasn't from sadness, but rather from fear.

"Mabel, it's fake, and not real. Nobody is actually there."

Even though the woman had seemed unable to answer, she still shook her head, and answered subconsciously; "You're wrong."

Bill was confused by her statement, but decided it wasn't worth it to pry right now, the suffocating air that seemed to be choking her was getting worse, and they were closer to the town than the Mystery Shack. So thinking quickly, he tightened his grip on her hand and started sprinting to the town, forcing her to do the same.

Throughout the run, he could've swore she had thanked him and squeezed his hand, but it was _very_ hard to tell from how crowded his thoughts already were.

 _ **Insert Line**_

When they had gotten far, far away from the forest and into town, Mabel seemed to cool down by a milestone; she acted as if nothing ever happened. Though it had bothered him greatly, he managed to speak to her normally and went on with their day.

"Gravity Fall's fair first? We can get rid of your tab of 4 games, 4 stuffed animals, and just playing at the Gravity Falls fair in general."

In response, Bill merely nodded his head and led her over to the ticket stand, and boy was the place crowded. Sundays were sometimes busy, but not this much! He supposed most of them were tourists…

When they were standing in line, Mabel's eyes ran over everything; like a robot would scan its surroundings. But she actually seemed greatly displeased when she saw the rides and booths…

It was nothing like the amazing ones the Mystery Shack did.

 _Everything is completely safe; the booths have normal stuffed animals, no fun shapes with the corndogs…_

"How boring," Mabel muttered under her breath.

"Hmm? What was that?" Bill asked, turned to her and bending over and tilted his head towards her.

"Oh, I was just saying—BZZZZ," Mabel started, but then put her mouth up against his ear and started making a buzzing noise; doing her best bee impersonation.

Bill actually _shrieked,_ and stood straight up, putting his hand on his ear with an embarrassed blush. He immediately let go of her hand, his hand gripping her shaking shoulder, and hissed;

" _Why did you do that?!"_

Mabel was practically in hysterics, laughing and laughing and she would've fell to the floor if it wasn't for his grip on her shoulder. Tears spilled from her eyes as she continued to laugh, the moment continuously playing in her head. At this point, her stomach was aching and she forced herself to a small chuckle, hands clutching her stomach tightly.

Still chuckling, she replied; "You shrieked like a _girl!"_

At his unamused frowning expression, she finally keeled over with laughter and bended at her waist, trying to keep her stomach from aching any longer, but still shaking with uncontrollable laughter. It was really hilarious to Mabel; she seemed to just further break any guards he held over his feelings.

While Mabel had thought of this, she was still laughing too hard to notice Bill had thought the same thing. It made him angry and he glared at her. It was annoying how close she seemed to be with him; and it seemed she didn't understand boundaries.

 _Oh, but I'm not letting that happen,_ Bill thought to himself, _or at least I won't be the only one. If she's trying to get close to me, don't I have every right to do the same?_

At the time he didn't notice that he had actually _wanted_ to be close to Mabel. Bill had enjoyed her company thus far, and seriously hadn't thought about how odd it was to have someone around him. Her laughing at him and making jokes at him had made him feel things _he_ didn't even know he could feel.

But back to the main issue here; she was _still_ laughing at him.

The man just stood quiet and ignored the stares of the townsfolk as they stared at them funny, but moved along soon enough. He simply watched with a frown, waiting for her to be done.

Seeing as Bill was now silent and impatient, Mabel forced herself to stop laughing all together and stood back up, rubbing her sore belly with a pout.

"I'm sorry, Billy, it was just funny. I knew most people were sensitive to that, but who knew you were too!"

Huffing, Bill glared at her and replied; "I keep telling you _not_ to call me Billy. It's degrading! And I am _not_ sensitive! I was just… Surprised!"

Wiping a tear from her eye, Mabel smiled and said "Sure," in a mocking manner.

It was rather quiet after that; the line moving slower than a turtle. And it was the afternoon, so he guessed that was the reason for the long line. People normally got here early to enjoy the whole day… It seemed like rush-hour traffic.

Mabel was the first to speak up when she asked; "Do I stick out in this outfit?"

Bill gave a quick once-over on her outfit, finding it strange that she always wore the same thing. Nonetheless, he replied; "No, the only time you stuck out is when you were laughing at me. And it's not really unusual, it's Gravity Falls, after all. But they probably think you're in costume or something."

Gasping, Mabel looked taken aback, and it shocked him at how much she seemed offended, and she asked, "Are you saying I look like a clown?"

"No, I'm saying you look like you're in costume."

"But I'm not even wearing a big red nose!"

"That's not what I was saying…"

"And my hair isn't stretched out and frizzy… Is it?!"

"Are you even—"

"Oh my gosh, it is, isn't it?! I can't go in there like this!"

"Mabel, you look-"

"We're going to the mall! There you can cover three more of your tabs!"

The woman linked her arms with his and ran out of the line, and towards a mall located a little ways off. The mall was built only a couple years back when Gravity Falls was going through reconstruction. Bill was going to object going to the Mall with her, but let it go once he realized they weren't really far in line, anyway. And this way, he could cover all of his tabs.

* * *

In a small shop named "Peachy Princesses," a blonde haired man sat on a bench, a brunette conversing with him enthusiastically. The man actually seemed interested and listened very intently, and a clerk stood nearby, ready to assist when necessary.

"What color suits me?"

"Hm… Yellow?"

"Bill, yellow only suits _you,_ with your wacky sense of fashion," the last part Mabel muttered, but said man heard it anyways and frowned, "but I mean me!"

The man's eye lazily ran over her magenta double-tailed jacket, finding the color matched her upbeat personality surprisingly well. His eye met her curious ones, and he confidently said; "Pink. Or a darker shade of it; hot pink, magenta, colors like that. But don't really go into purple or black."

Mabel tilted her head slightly before nodding, and turning towards the clerk, asking happily, "Do you have magenta dresses? Preferably like my jacket."

The woman smiled and nodded, bringing Mabel over to a selection of dresses in varying shades of pink. Bill simply remained at the bench, leaning back in the chair as he sighed. He remembered when the first entered the store; the worker calling them a "newlywed couple." He also remembered the distinct red on his face, while Mabel just simply insisted they were friends.

But that was okay too, Bill had decided. He had never cared enough for friends, nor ever wanted any. Any person was simply uninterested in the things he liked, or thought he was completely weird and crazy. These things never offended him, but rather made him annoyed. William always made futile attempts to steer him away from the supernatural and trying to get him to be social. His twin _also_ liked the supernatural, but never openly spoke about it with other people.

Bill had argued back, saying that a "friend" was somebody who accepted what you liked and possibly shared the same interests. It's not like anybody else in Gravity Falls knew about it, and nobody outside of it thought it was fairytales. It's why he was more close to his brother and Uncle, but would be ashamed to say something so affectionate out loud.

Well, all except Mabel. It seemed to him that she didn't care much about what other people thought, as she told him as they searched for this store. Turned out she had just lied in line and said she actually came here so they could slim down his tab while not having to wait in that dreadfully long line.

"I used to stick gummy worms up my nose, do you really think that I would care what other people think?" She had said earlier.

 _Definitely one of a kind,_ Bill thought. He liked hearing more about the things he hadn't figured out yet. Mabel knew way more than what she was letting on, and it provided a fun challenge for him. But at the same time he knew he was getting attached to her, and tried to detest the feeling with all his might. Soon enough the deal would be completed; the machine would be finished, she'd get what she wanted, and they'd no longer have any need to see each other. What made him even more perturbed was him not having a clue what she thought of him, either. Mabel always seemed to sport the same attitude and expressions, so he could never properly read anything about her.

 _I feel like a teenage boy, becoming insecure like this,_ he snapped to himself. He had only known the woman for about a week, and it was truly upsetting how he was quickly importing her into his life.

Soon enough, Mabel returned, holding three dresses the clerk had helped her pick out.

"Okay, so I went for one magenta dress, one black and rainbow dress, and one _yellow_ dress." Mabel had put in a slight disgusted tone on the word "yellow" and he chuckled a little bit.

"You can't just show me the dresses outright; try them on so you know you'll like them."

"But I _already_ like them," Mabel exasperated, huffing at him.

"Yes, okay, but _who_ is paying for this?" Bill asked in return, a stern look in his eye but a playful smile on his lips.

"And _whose_ fault is that? It's on your tab! You never said that _you'd_ have to see me wear them!"

"And you never said I couldn't," he informed, inwardly laughing as she glared. "Just go try them on, it's not gonna' kill you."

Sticking her tongue out at him, Mabel stomped into the dressing room. Bill laughed a little at her antics, and noticed the worker was giggling a little, a satisfied expression on her face.

He was startled when she said; "You are seriously attracted to that girl."

Bill's face inflamed like it had earlier, turning a shade of red darker than an apple. His tongue seemed to twist and he stuttered a little before swallowing and replying; "I do not!"

"Oh, please. Don't act like that, you can see it on your face!"

He glared at her and said, "Nothing shows on my face!"

The woman simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, waving off his insistences. "You know, she picked out that yellow dress because she thought _you_ would like that."

At the statement his eye widened and his mouth shut, turning back towards the dressing room. For him? Why would she try on something for _him?_ His thoughts truly felt jumbled. He wanted to believe it, if not for one moment, before doubting the statement completely and shoving it out of his mind. For what reason, why would she do something for him? He was the one with the tab, not her.

Mabel soon walked out of the dressing room in bare feet and he chuckled at little at that. Seems she seriously removed everything; her headband, bowtie, shoes, socks… So now she was only in the magenta dress.

It was rather pretty; a knee-length strapless dress with a large ribbon around the waist and lace trimmings along the edges. The skirt portion was in layers that he thought really communicated her personality. The dress looked like something for fun and outgoing parties.

"It looks gorgeous," Bill said, the words slipping out from his mouth before he could stop them.

Both of their cheeks became red as Mabel stuttered out a thanks and quickly walked back into the dressing room to slip into the next dress. Out of the corner of his eye, he said the woman roll her eyes and turned his head sharply to her.

"What?!"

The woman shook her head and sighed. "You both are _obviously_ in love with each other."

Bill simply drew his hands along his face and huffed. Another thing he completely doubted. Mabel wasn't human, and he had totally forgot about that until now. It's not like this _really_ affected him since Mabel looked and acted like a human. And the fact didn't bother him really; it's not like she had tentacles or a snake-tongue, or even animal parts. To him she was someone powerful in the shape of a young woman.

 _It's not like anyone else will summon her,_ Bill thought with slight satisfaction. _Who else could possibly get their hands on that page? And it's not like I'll give it away, and I doubt anyone else would know that it's in invisible ink._

For now, he didn't really bother to think to where the source of his thoughts and feelings currently was. But he was satisfied with his conclusion.

That way she couldn't leave him, right?

Mabel soon came out, twirling and spinning in her black rainbow dress all the while. She stopped in front of him and stretched her arms out with a "Ta-da!"

The dress was mainly black, and the fabric only went over one shoulder and wasn't on the other. The bust part of it was in rainbow, as was the two bows at the hip and the hem of the dress. The rest of the dress remained black. The gloss of the fabric interested him, and he reached out and pulled on her arm, bringing her down a little. He ran his hand over the upper-back part of it and concluded it was silk. Letting go of her, he nodded his approval. His eye widened at seeing her arms crossed and a slight shade of red on her cheeks.

He laughed at seeing her scramble back to the dressing room, not saying a single thing. But he had no clue why she was blushing. She wasn't sick with a fever…

At seeing the man's curious face, the woman threw her hands in the air and said, "For crying out loud! You two are extremely dense! She was _blushing_ because you touched her back!"

"But she had clothes on! It's not like I touched her bare back!"

"For the love of—it was _silk!_ You can feel anything through that flimsy fabric!"

"What are you two arguing for? Bill, are you arguing with that sweet lady?!"

Growling slightly, Bill turned to Mabel with the intent to _loudly retort,_ when his breath hitched, and his mouth gaped open. She was wearing the yellow dress, and boy was it beautiful on her!

It was a cute off-the-shoulder dress and had long sleeves that draped over her hands, and the bottom of the dress skimmed the floor. It had brick patterns halfway down the sleeves and from the waist down, and an eye of providence on her torso.

Despite thinking that there was no possible way the store sold something like that, he still breathed the word; "Stunning."

Mabel tilted her head at him, smiling widely. Well, at least he liked it!

Finally collecting his bearings and realizing he looked like he was incredibly stupid, Bill gave a smirk and said; "And you thought yellow was a wacky choice of color."

The brunette shrugged and turned her red face away, her arms crossing as she said, "I guess it depends."

But still, she turned her head back to him and loosened up and smiled radiantly, causing him to smile, too. Who know her happiness was contagious?

The clerk finally spoke up, looking confused as ever. "Where did you get that dress? There's no way we sell that here."

Mabel tilted her head and pointed towards the rack of yellow dresses, and so did the woman, finding they all did _indeed_ look like that. Frowning, the woman scratched the top of her head and replied, "Well I'll be damned. I guess I didn't see that before! Will that be all?"

The brunette shook her head as Bill stood up, finally stretching out his limbs. He couldn't help the feeling they were forgetting something…

"He owes me three headbands. And I'd also like to wear the pink dress out."

The woman smiled and went over to the cash register, starting to input the amount.

Mabel pushed Bill a little towards it and quickly went to go change, and by the time Bill had gone to the counter, Mabel was already out; wearing her headband top-hat, bowtie, worn-out black shoes, and carrying the other two dresses on her cane. Her original clothes were nowhere to be found. But he wondered why she still wore the bowtie and small top-hat.

She stepped up beside him and placed the dresses on the counter, waiting for the woman to scan them. The clerk wanted to ask where the clothes she had came in were, but decided against it.

Mabel picked out a pink, rainbow, and yellow headband and placed them alongside the dresses as the woman scanned them. As Bill stared at the dresses, he gasped and snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering something.

"Mabel, I thought you wanted four dresses and four headbands?"

The woman smiled, pleased that he remembered such a detail. She had been wondering if he did the whole time. "I changed it to three because I don't feel like trying on another dress. And thus, three headbands."

The worker soon handed them a large bag with the items, gave them a smile, and thanked them for their purchase. They swiftly left, and the clerk, with the store now empty, walked over to those yellow dresses. She kind of didn't remember getting them in…

But as she walked over to them, she found all of them were a normal yellow once more. The woman stared for a moment with her mouth gaped open before sighing and rubbing her forehead.

"I should've slept more last night."

* * *

Soon enough, the two were walking out of the mall, Mabel eating one of her 40 chocolate bars as Bill was forced to carry her shopping bags. It seemed he was _extremely_ discontent with it, but Mabel was too nonchalant and happy to notice. ON her feet were her new black shoes, her old ones thrown away back in the store.

The second they left the doors, the bags all disappeared, the rest of the chocolate bar still remaining in Mabel's hand. Feeling his hands gripping nothing and no more strain on his arms, he looked down and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Where'd they go?"

"Ah, I put them in the dreamscape."

"And that is…?"

"My home, I guess. More like an endless plane of existence, but it's there."

Bill simply nodded as Mabel led the way this time, having remembered where the fair was this time. They noticed the line had gone down by a lot, probably because it was way past noon by now.

Ahead of them was four people, and the line seemed much faster without as many. They stood there rather silently and awkwardly as Mabel simply finished her chocolate bar, a giddy smile on her face. By the time the line moved down to one more person ahead of them, the chocolate bar was gone, and she made the wrapper dissolve into magenta flames, making her smile even more at the pretty flame.

"Can you just set anything on fire?"

At his question, Mabel giggled a little and turned to him. "It's not a real flame… Or maybe it is! I have no clue!"

The blonde's eye narrowed at her as he became perplexed. "How do you not know?"

"Well, it's not hot like a normal flame is, isn't the right color, and it only burns things by whim. See, if I put one in your hair, you have only a fifty-percent chance of it burning your hair off."

"Oh, that makes sense. Remind me to never let your hands near my head."

The woman only nodded as they stepped up to the stand, asking for two tickets. When the payment was asked for, Mabel held up a yellow brick-patterned wallet and drew the money out, and Bill watched this carefully, eye narrowing at the wallet.

Wasn't that his…?

His hands fumbled through every pocket on him and frowned at finding not a single thing in any of them. When Mabel turned to him with a large smile to hand him his ticket, he glared at her and snatched his wallet back, and the brunette even laughed at the scowl on his face.

When they started to walk, Mabel said; "I found that wallet on the floor."

"Yeah I bet you did. You liar."

She laughed and grabbed his hand, hastily leading him over to the first game in sight.

"We're only playing four games today, right?" Bill asked, already having a bad feeling in his gut. If it was _her_ deciding what they did… He had a feeling they'd be there for days.

"Ha. Right. _Four._ "

* * *

When they arrived back at the Mystery Shack, Bill plopped himself onto the recliner in the living room, sighing at finally getting to be comfortable. He knew he'd be sleeping there tonight since he couldn't make it to his room.

Bill _really_ didn't want to move, but he had to since Mabel was still there. He forced himself to sit up in the chair and turned his head towards her, his eye already drooping with tiredness.

" _Forty games._ That was _times-ten_ many more than what was required. And you got so many stuffed animals that you kept having to put them in your dreamscape."

The woman smiled tiredly, a new feature he'd never thought he'd see. Mabel always had so much boundless energy, he figured even she wouldn't fall asleep. It seemed that was wrong, because even she was yawning and looked worn down.

"Well I haven't been back in centuries…" Her voice cut off with another yawn, and as contagious as they were, even Bill did too. "Thanks for today, Bill," Mabel said tiredly.

"No problem. Needed to get out of the house some time in my life, right?"

They both laughed, but it was so beat up it was nearly soundless. They were both ready to crash and if they didn't get what they needed to say out fast enough, Mabel would probably fall asleep on the floor.

"I guess we'll try and start that machine tomorrow. Good night, Mabel."

At the first part, it seemed her eyes widened, a different look from her tired ones a couple seconds ago. But she still weakly smiled and replied; "Gotcha. Tomorrow then. Good night, Bill."

The second Mabel had disappeared, Bill fell asleep, a little excitement in his mind for tomorrow.

He _really_ hoped he'd get some answers in tomorrow's solution.

* * *

For how late he fell asleep last night, Bill woke up pretty early that next morning. He walked into the kitchen, his feet shuffling along the floor. Having never been a morning person, he hadn't quite woken up yet and was too lazy to lift his feet and just slid them along.

He looked a little confused to find nothing in the kitchen. There was no William, no smell of something cooking, and nothing left out. His hand fished around in his pocket for his phone and found it, wondering when Mabel gave it back to him. He opened it, finding 2 missed calls, a voicemail, and then a text.

The ringer was actually all the way up, and the calls came yesterday when they were at the fair. Not hearing them was probably because Mabel had it when she somehow snuck everything out of his pocket. But he had no clue where she would've put it the whole time; if it was in _her_ pocket, he would've still heard it.

But he decided not to worry about it, and put the phone to his ear as he played the voicemail.

" _Why don't you answer your phone?! I knew you were doing something weird with Mabel!"_ Bill frowned at this, " _But anyway, I won't be back for at least two more days. Me and Krystal were going to go exploring for a while. We hadn't really been that many places outside of Gravity Falls. Have fun with Mabel! I'm winking but you can't see it! Love you!"_

Bill rolled his eyes at the last part, his face scrunching up when his brother said "Love you." William was a seriously sensitive and had a slightly feminine touch here and there. It's not that it really made Bill disgusted since William had said it ever since they were kids, but sometimes it was weird when Bill was too creeped out to say it back.

He read the text next, seeing that it was sent at least 30 minutes ago.

" **If u ever have girl problems, I'm here for u. Was about time u started showing interest in women. Thought u would never ever get a gf. Good luck!"**

Bill's hand ran down his face as he set his phone on the table, rummaging through the fridge. He frowned at seeing they had nearly nothing in there, just half a gallon of milk.

Cereal was okay.

And when he sat down to eat it, Mabel suddenly appeared next to him, making him jump, bite down on his tongue to keep from screaming, and drop the cereal, sending the small little flakes everywhere.

For a second he simply sat there, his eyes squeezed shut, still frozen in that spot from when she spooked him. Finally he let go of his tongue and sharply turned his head to her, his grouchy morning personality rearing its ugly head as he snarled;

" _Why would you do that?!"_

Mabel was still doubling over in laughter, snapping her fingers in the midst of it and the cereal dissolved into nothing.

Knowing the day wouldn't continue on if she kept laughing, she slowly calmed down and smiled at him.

"Good morning to you, too!"

"Don't get smart with me," Bill hissed, his eye practically in a slit as he glared her down, "what am I supposed to eat now?"

Taken aback by his attitude, Mabel said; "Wow, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the couch. And here, you can eat some French toast!"

After she snapped her fingers, the said food appeared in on top of his bowl and he simply huffed, deciding it was better than nothing. Mabel stood off to the side as he ate, snacking on one of her chocolate bars. Bill saw what she was eating and rose his eyes to her, asking how many she had eaten.

"This would be my fifteenth."

A chuckle escaped his mouth and he continued eating. Fifteen? She only had one yesterday. Or that he knew of. Who knows? Maybe she didn't sleep last night and stayed up eating the chocolate.

"I ate five for breakfast," Mabel answered, giggling at his thoughts.

He frowned, a little irritated as his private thoughts were invaded again. "That's not healthy."

"I could live my life on gumballs and sugar and never change! I'm immortal!"

Smiling, Bill finished off his food and stood up, stretching as he heard his body popping upon stretching out his limbs. When he moved to put the things away, he found them already put up, and Mabel still chewing on her chocolate.

He shrugged, telling her he would go take a shower and then they'd go down to the basement.

Mabel, now left alone in the dining room, finished off her chocolate and disintegrated the wrapper. She didn't feel real giddy about today. She spent all night preparing for today, but still wasn't completely ready. If it worked, she'd have to explain everything to Bill, and she'd face _them_ once more… But still… She'd still be the same.

 _Immortal and a dream demon. They don't know this new you, Mabel._

The thought frightened her and caused her to lose a little sleep. And then the thought of what would happen if the machine didn't work. She hadn't exactly prepared herself for that outcome… She hadn't even completely prepared for if it _did_ work.

Deciding to occupy herself with something else, she picked up Bill's phone off the table and opened it, sifting through his calls and voicemails. She knew she was snooping, but hey! Bill left it out in the open, it was fair game!

She listened to the one his brother had left him yesterday; blushing at his implications of her and Bill. It was cute, his brother had a really sweet personality. And at the end when he said "Love you…"

Her eyes softened and became somber, her grip on the phone tightening.

"When was the last time I've heard those words said to me…?"

But still, she went to his messages, seeing one left by William just this morning. She read it, laughing a little. Her and Bill, huh? Well, she did rather enjoy being with Bill. Mabel had always enjoyed forbidden romance, and was a total sucker for any romance at all, but found it a little more difficult in her own situation. With her being a demon, and Bill a human… He'd die before her, right?

The thought was saddening, but decided on something else. Maybe, once this was all over, she'd stick around with him. And if she had a plan someday, _then_ she'd tell him her feelings. But those feelings were still in development, and for now she was content sticking by him.

William seemed to be there for Bill, and that was a thing she liked.

William and Bill reminded her way too much of her and D—

Mabel screeched suddenly, jolting in the chair, sending it toppling over backwards with her in it, her head banging painfully against the wood floor. She was pretty sure if she wasn't a dream demon, that would've split her head.

But it sure as hell felt like it! Wincing, Mabel slowly lifted her head using her hands, placing it over them and staying there for a moment, eyes squeezed shut as she slowly took the throbbing away.

She heard a door quickly creak open from down the hallway, and Bill yelled out;

"The hell happened in there?!"

Mabel's mouth felt dry, choking as she remembered why she fell over. Her throat seemed to be closing on her, and she tried to gasp for breath, her eyes glazing over. She was motionless, her mind moving slowly as she tried to grasp back onto reality.

"Mabel?! Agh, damnit!"

Well, she heard him just fine, she just couldn't reply. The door had shut and the water stopped running, and she knew she had better get herself together before Bill returned. But that was the problem—her body rejected her desire to move, her heart deciding on its own that it'd be caught up in the past.

 _It's okay, Mabel! Remember what today is? When that machine works, you won't need to feel this way! See, they aren't completely gone! They'll come back to you today!_

The thoughts urged her on a little, and she slowly started to move her arms from under her head and start propping herself up, before feeling two arms grab hers and lift her the rest of the way. Once she was set on her feet, her eyes met his as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Mabel, can ya' hear me? I've been calling your name for over a minute!"

She only nodded, her mouth still parted as she tried to swallow and breathe. But her emotions were out in the open, and she knew this and couldn't retract them yet. She was trying, though. Desperately, she tried to hide those feelings written on her face—the ones shown in the streams down her cheeks.

Bill's eye's furrowed in concern, and he wiped away her tears with his sleeve. Her hands had dropped to her side long ago, but they suddenly moved and grasped his sweater, eyes widening as they still held no life. He was starting to get a little worried; she had not been this way at all this morning. Did this happen after she fell over…?

 _More like that was the cause of it,_ a voice said in his mind, one that made his eye widen with remembrance.

It was the little girl, the one who had been there way since he had arrived; Mabel. Or the other Mabel, he still hadn't figured it out yet. But not wanting her to read his thoughts talking to no one, he decided not to answer, and instead think about what she said. The cause of it…? What made her upset and topple over in the chair?

 _She can't hear your thoughts right now, idiot. Not in that state._

 _Okay… What's causing this?_

 _Our past._

" _Our" past..?_

 _Dang you're slow. I thought you understood by now! We're the same person. But I'm another conscience she's been trying to shove away. But because I hang around you all the time, I'm starting to bring my memories to her, and by now it's gotten to where it's driving her crazy._

Bill frowned a little at the explanation. Well, he almost had it. He had a faint thought they were the same person, but they all seemed to fit. Many things were now answered and clicked together, but it opened another long dreadful trail of questions.

But… Another conscience she tried to keep away? So then, the little girl Mabel was her memories that she locked away. But the small Mabel was around him all the time, and was coming back together with Mabel.

Then, this little girl Mabel was the one with the pig, the one screaming in the forest alongside those others… Those others… Who were they? It was already confusing as hell, but he decided he'd get those answers later, despite how much he wanted to know them now.

 _Alright… For now, what do I do? Wait? Calm her down?_

 _You don't have a single romantic bone in your body, I'm almost convinced you're a lost cause. HUG HER, IDIOT! You're supposed to hug and say "everything is okay, I'm right here with you!" You should really take some advice from your brother._

The thought of hugging her made him embarrassed. From the front…? That was kind of overstepping some boundaries. But if it calmed her down, then he'd put up with it.

Like he was told, his arms wrapped around the motionless woman, cradling the back of her head in his palm. He winced at feeling the bump starting to form there and became surprisingly gentle, and tried to will himself to say those magic words.

Things were already embarrassing, and he felt that if his face got any hotter, his head would explode. Gentle was hardly in his nature, and he doubted he could stay this way for much longer.

Quietly, he whispered; "I'm right here, Mabel…" Bill swallowed, struggling to continue the dreaded romantic moment, "It's okay."

It's not that he _hated_ hugging Mabel, oh no, far from it. But it was the words. It was as if he never learned the word "gentle" or "soothing," and he had zero experience on what to do in these situations. It was already confusing him as to her sudden change in demeanor. No matter what, any emotion besides normal fun ones were _always_ guarded with her, and it seemed that she was suddenly unmoving.

But like magic, the words made sense smack back into her and she swallowed finally, her voice coming back to her. In her mind, she knew it was a little late, that Bill had already seen her freaking out, but she would try and suddenly become normal. Then they'd go downstairs, and she'd get back what she lost.

Mabel's arms wrapped around his torso tightly, and it was so sudden that the air left his lungs as she made his back pop all down his spine. Well, with the change in her attitude, he certainly felt that the awkward and scary situation was over.

"Aww, a hug! Thank you Bill! I return your hug!"

Bill, still stiff as a board with the aching in his lungs and back as he struggled to breath, moved his hands to her shoulders and tried to detach himself from her.

"That's… Great… LET GO!"

Immediately, Mabel released him and held her arms in the air in defense, smiling guiltily. "Alright-y then!"

The man slouched over, coughing as he breathed; arms rubbing his back. "Ow, that's one hell of a grip you got there."

"Thanks! I was always known to be a little barbaric!"

Finally straightening up, Bill replied; "Yes, I see why."

Then the room was just silent, neither one saying anything. Mabel just stood there surprisingly quiet, just a smile held on her face. To be honest, that smile was creeping him out for the moment, since she just watched him and continued to smile. He knew she was trying _way_ too hard to cover up what just happened.

And Bill didn't really want to be the one to bring it up, but he felt the whole day would be awkward as hell, and also extremely dreadful. So when he opened his mouth to ask her what happened, he was cut off as Mabel spoke.

"I'm sorry for what happened there… Would you believe me if I told you that I was crying because it hurt when the chair fell over, and it fell over because I was clumsy?"

Bill instantly shook his head no, his eyes narrowing at her. At the moment, he didn't need her to explain this "past" the other Mabel spoke about, but it was really up to her. If she was up for it, okay, but otherwise he just wanted to know why she was spaced out for so long.

Mabel sighed, her whole (extremely fake) happy face coming undone as she looked a little sad. "I was spaced out for a while because I got lost in my head… Something I thought was gone decided to come back around and tried to reattach itself to me. That… Sounds way more complicated than what was in my head. But maybe I'll tell you someday, but can it stay that way for now?"

 _So the other Mabel was right._ Bill still nodded regardless, and ran a hand through his hair, smoothing back what was dripping all over his face. He got dressed and ran out of there so fast that he didn't brush or dry his hair, and was pretty sure his underwear was inside-out.

Then they walked out to the gift shop; not another word said the whole time. Mabel didn't volunteer to teleport them this time, nor did Bill ask her to. He didn't mind taking the elevator, and Mabel herself was actually too unstable at the moment to use her powers. She'd probably set everything on fire, including them, if she tried to teleport.

He typed in the code quickly, descending down the steps with Mabel in tow. While focusing simply on other things, and Mabel doing the same, one forgot to close the door and the other didn't listen to it shut. But as they stepped onto the elevator and the down button was pressed, Bill finally decided to speak up.

"Mabel, after I start that machine and whatever happens afterwards, will you then explain to me why the machine is there, who built it, and other things related to it?"

The woman simply stared ahead, the smile having never reappeared on her face. "If the machine works," she stated.

"And if it doesn't…?"

The question was left unanswered; not even a shrug. She hadn't prepared herself for if it didn't work… Even as the elevator finally stopped, her heart started beating faster. Memories were starting to flood her head with each step… Her smaller self was starting to become her again. Mabel was surprised she hadn't started going into hysterics yet, with all the memories filling back up that empty space in her mind.

"Mabel?"

The said person gasped, her eyes clearing and the previous memories were lost into the smaller self again. At his hand on her shoulder, she immediately felt relieved, and the emotionless moment she just had was gone.

"Thank you… I'm fine."

Bill stared at her, still a little worried. She seemed to be dreading this moment more than she was letting on. And to think that she looked forward to this machine being done the whole time…

He decided that they were already close to getting this over with, and smiled at her, Mabel returning it with one of her own. Bill then let go of her shoulder, striding over to the lever, himself becoming excited with what would happen. If he was alone, he would have pulled the damn lever already, but now he had Mabel with him, and he would wait for her.

Mabel, swallowing down her doubts, smiled at him, gesturing him to continue. Now would be the time where she'd have _them_ back. She'd never feel such loss again. Everything would be okay now.

As Bill pulled the lever, Mabel felt a vibration in her pocket and pulled it out, nearly laughing at finding Bill's phone in there. She had _actually_ forgot that she secretly grabbed it on the way out. And in her state back then, that was truly shocking.

But she flipped it open, discovering William was calling. She didn't even hesitate or stop to think about the moment when she answered the call, giving a cheerful greeting through the phone.

" _Mabel?! Why are you answering Bill's phone?"_

"I kind of maybe took it for the time being. What's up?"

"Mabel get off the phone, I'll call him back later.. You.. You need to look at this!"

At Bill's slightly frightened voice, Mabel moved the phone a little ways away from her, gasping at the machine sucking up everything in its path. Without turning the phone off and disconnecting the call, Mabel stuck the phone into her pocket and grabbed onto one of the poles supporting the basement, screaming for Bill to come over her as he struggled to grab something sturdy.

"Bill, one of the poles! Hurry!"

Bill was yelling something back at her, but the machine was starting to make a lot of noise, blocking out his voice… And also the one coming from the phone.

" _Bill…? Mabel…? What's going on over there?"_

With a lot of effort, Bill managed to pull himself over to her pole, yelling at her over the chaos of the machine.

"Is it _supposed_ to do this?!"

"I don't know!"

The angry reply Bill was trying to make was drowned out as metal panels from the wall started tearing off and disappearing with the machine. The light was becoming blinding, and they were both screaming so loud that their throats were raw, having to soon shield their faces. Things flew past them, too. Glass from the broken picture frame sliced Bill's hand before going along with everything else and he swore, nearly letting go of the pole.

They were both convinced that this machine would suck up everything; the basement, the Mystery Shack… Probably the world. But gravity was soon gone, and they were floating, no longer able to use their feet to keep them still. So now they had to hold onto the pole, hoping that the pole wouldn't break and they would disappear, too.

And then… It all stopped. They both fell to the ground, the phone falling out of Mabel's pocket and skidding along the floor.

" _BILL?! MABEL?! HELLO?!"_

" _I'LL BE THERE SOON, PLEASE BE OKAY!"_

* * *

After what could've been 30 minutes, Bill was the first to rouse, and slowly opened his eyes, surveying the area. So almost everything was sucked in, and the machine…. Bill turned his head, looking at that _death trap._

 _It's broken…?_

The main part of the machine was in pieces, wires and metal pierced through them and sticking out all over the place. Some lights in the ceiling were sucked away, and most of them broke, but enough were left so they could still see. He groaned, thinking what a waste it was. There was nothing there, in fact, less then what there was!

What was it supposed to do anyway? Nonetheless, he decided to wake Mabel up so she could decide if it served its purpose. So he shakily got onto his hands and knees, flinching at the sting in his hand. Well, it looked like he just made it continue bleeding. Mabel was only a few feet away, and he slowly got onto his feet and stretched, wondering just how long they'd been out.

He walked over to the sleeping woman, crouching next to her and shaking her shoulders roughly. Well, lightly shaking her wasn't going to do anything. She was out cold.

But this seemed to wake her and she slowly rose her head and moved her hair out of her face. As she turned her head to look at him, he saw that she was extremely confused, as if she didn't know what was going on. But she soon remembered what happened and where they were, and, way faster than what he did, bolted up to her feet and turned her head to the machine, stilling when her eyes landed on it.

"The machine… It broke…?"

"Probably after we fainted," Bill replied, standing back up and turning his head toward her.

Mabel continued to stare on, eyes wide with desperation and confusion. Why did the machine break? In its place… In its place…! In its place!

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" Mabel screamed out, but not at him, or rather, to anybody or maybe something else entirely. But her body enveloped in her flames, hair whipping around her head as the temperature suddenly changed in the room, becoming unbearably cold.

Bill shivered, wrapping his arms around himself as winds were whipping around her—winds that didn't make sense to him. But he understood one thing; she was _angry. Infuriated. Outraged._

 _Cheated._

In angry strides, she started walking to the machine, walking around the debris that blocked half of it from view, and stopped abruptly.

The winds suddenly disappeared, the air instantly returned to normal, and the flames around Mabel were gone as if they were never there. Wondering what had suddenly changed her, Bill stepped towards her warily, and when he was right behind her, she dropped to her knees, and he could see what made her stop.

Sitting right in front of her was a worn-out hat. Half of it was blue, and the other half was white, a blue pine tree resting on the front of it. Along the top and back was a smeared color; red. So blended into it that it proved how old the hat was.

As soon as her hands touched the hat, it fell apart in threads at her hands. Her watery brown eyes widened, and her hands shakily grasped at the threads, desperately wanting the hat to restore to its original position. She could if she used her powers. But not now. Not on this item. She wouldn't continue to taint that hat by using her powers.

Bill could only watch as she herself started to fall apart in threads like the hat did, and didn't have a single clue what to do. The small Mabel didn't speak to him or tell him how to comfort her, and he didn't know whether she needed somebody or just needed space.

As tears started to spill from her eyes, she screamed out, the sound echoing off the walls and throughout the whole house. Her hands grasped at her brown hair, viciously tearing strands out as her body started to give off a magenta hue. Scared by what was happening to her, Bill crouched down next to her before his eyes found something on the other side of her—the younger Mabel.

Now he could see that girl's form, as she was visible, but transparent. She wore a Shooting Star pink sweater, a big pig sitting silently at her feet. He instantly recognized how that was Mabel by the main features, and also the pig. The small Mabel was crying, too, he realized, as she slowly disappeared in what he could only assume was her going back into the current Mabel.

With no other solution, he grabbed her hands that were tearing out her hair and kept them away as he had her lean against him. He would've laughed at how he was literally letting her have a shoulder to cry on, but the situation didn't allow for any of it. When he was sure she wouldn't tear her hair out anymore he let go of her hands and they instantly curled into his sweater as she cried.

"…Mabel…? Mabel will you speak to me? Tell me what's wrong. What was that machine supposed to do?"

Hiccupping, Mabel answered; "It- it was supposed to-to give me my fam-family ba-ack…"

He held her a little tighter, surprised she even answered. She only said she would if it worked. "Why was your family in there? Where were they?"

Her hands formed tighter fists in his shirt, but she continued to answer. If she never spoke about this to anybody, how could she expect to feel even the slightest bit better? Her heart ached, but she pressed on. "I made a deal a-a long time ago… He-he said he'd bring my family back, but- but he placed them in another dimension… That… That was the only way…"

Repeating it now only made her shake harder with sobs as she remembered feeling like this before, but last time she had cried alone before forcing memories of her family away and into another form. At the moment, she wanted to do it again and get rid of the heartache. But maybe Bill thought she'd do the same thing, and replied;

"It won't get better if you remove those memories again, Mabel. The cycle will repeat, and what if I'm not around next time? It hurts pretty bad now, but it doesn't forever. You continue on; start your life anew."

"No… I gave up everything to bring them back… And by the time that passed… They're long gone by now!"

"But you have forever to continue on and become happy."

So there they sat for a while, Bill simply holding on to her as she tried to calm down and soon was only sniffling. A couple yards away was his phone; smashed into two pieces, or three if you counted the battery also separated from it. He assumed that it smashed against one of the debris when Mabel was angry and started causing strong winds down here…

But didn't William call before? There was no way the call continued… He'd come home and see the basement…

The silence was broken as the grounds suddenly shook, kind of like an earthquake. Bill instinctively tightened his arms on Mabel and she gasped at the sudden jolt of the floor. The ground was just shaking, and rather violently at that.

"What's happening?" Mabel asked in a small frightened whisper.

"I think it's aftershocks of the machine… I don't know if it'll do that again."

The shaking already stopped and they both stood up together, Bill having to help Mabel since she was rather shaky on her feet. When she was firmly planted on the ground, he decided to let go of her and she wiped her eyes before meeting his own.

"…I can tell you wanna know more but can't ask, huh? Do you want to… To see it? I can give you a glimpse of the main part of the memory of why this happened… This way I won't relive it, and won't have to explain… It hurts more that way."

Tilting his head, Bill gave a small nod. He didn't really know what he was asking for, actually. He would _see_ it? But she was right—he seriously wanted to know what exactly she meant.

"We're starting at the root of it all—when I had to take up this job."

Before he could reply, his surroundings suddenly changed, but just seemed to morph into a different version of where he was now. They were _still_ in the basement, but Mabel wasn't there, and this seemed like an earlier version of it. Looking to the side on the table with the computer, he saw a picture frame, but instead of him and his brother, he saw the younger kid Mabel, and beside her was a similar-looking boy with a pine tree hat.

 _That's the one we saw come out of the machine…_

But then he started hearing voice, and quickly looked to his left and saw the small Mabel wailing onto the floor, and around her was… Corpses… Or of what he saw. In her arms was the boy in the picture, his body covered in blood and bones at an odd angle. The same went for the bodies around her; an old man with what could've been a fez, and then a big man with remnants of a green shirt with a question mark on it, the one usually in the gift shop of the Mystery Shack.

Standing to the side was a demon—or that's what he assumed it was at first sight. A man floating off the floor wearing a top-hat and bow-tie, sporting red clothing and hair, a twisted smile plastered on his face.

He had the instant urge to strangle that man but couldn't for two reasons; the first being that he couldn't touch anything, and that none of them could see him. Mabel's glaring and hateful eyes turned to the demon, screaming at him; "Who are you?! What do you want?"

The man walked over to her, glancing down at the corpses around her.

"You made the wrong choice, little one. You should've pressed that off button instead of listening to the old man. They're dead because of _your_ choice."

Off button? Bill turned to see the machine kind of like it was now in their time; broken in every way. The lever to turn it on was snapped, a red button sticking at the top, one he recognized to shut the machine off once it was powered.

"I didn't mean to… Please… Can you bring them back?"

"Of course I can! But it's gonna cost you a lot!"

Mabel looked frightened at the mention of a payment, knowing it most likely wasn't money the demon wanted. Was it going to cost her own life? She'd give it up if it meant saving them, though.

"What do you want?"

"I'm getting rather old, and despite how I look, I'm tired of this job and am ready to just pass on already. Dream demons are immortal, but they can go back if they were to appoint the job to someone else. I need someone else to take this job and just happened to find you in a bind! How about it?"

The little girl was somewhat horrified by the idea. A demon? She didn't want that. If she was immortal, that meant she'd die before her brother, and anyone else she cared for. It'd be like losing them a second time.

"Well if you're not up for it, I'll leave! Have fun with those _corpses!_ "

Mabel flinched, screaming out for him to wait. Even so, if she could just stay with them once more and watch Dipper grow up and Soos progress with life, then that'd be okay. But she did hesitate, just for that moment. She would be condemning herself to a life where she couldn't get close to anyone, making deals like he was and cheating people. From now on, she'd hurt many people if she took the job…

But that hesitation was gone as fast as it came, and she shakily stretched her small hand out to his, and Bill yelled out for her to stop, forgetting that nobody could hear him. In the moment, it all seemed wrong. She was too young to take on such an evil job, and by what he knew, in the end she didn't even get what was promised.

"Bring my family back to life, and I'll… I'll take on your job."

Smiling mischievously, the man nodded and shook her hand, officially sealing the deal. Bill watched on with horror as the little girl started to scream, an unearthly glow wrapping around her body as a small top-hat and bow tie changed from the demon's person to hers. And the wounds healed on her family, but he was filled with dread as their bodies disappeared, leaving behind nothing.

Mabel soon stopped screaming, her body falling to the ground as she gasped and sobbed, wanting nothing more than to curl up in her bed and hope this was a nightmare. But as she looked for what she was promised, she screeched at seeing her family gone. Her eyes met those of the evil demon, tears falling down her face.

"You lied! Where is my family?!"

"Oh, I brought them back to life, but you didn't answer where. So I placed them in the dimension located when you operate that portal! I guess you'll have to build it again and find them! Take this as your first guide to making deals; you have to locate loopholes if you want to be a good dream demon."

Before Mabel could screech at him to bring them back home, the man dissolved into nothing more than dust, leaving Mabel completely alone. She continued to stare on for a moment, mouth opening and closing as she tried to speak out. Soon, she started wailing once more and curled into a ball on the floor.

Off to the side, Bill stood with a gaping mouth, wishing so bad that he could've beat the hell out of that demon. That wasn't right, the demon didn't exactly deliver what was promised. He tortured Mabel and even in the future when she _did_ rebuild it, she received nothing but loss. The family she tried for so long to get back was already dead once more when she could finally continue building it.

" _I couldn't build it on my own without the journals… I searched for centuries, never thinking about how they aged during that time while I didn't."_

Bill became a little somber at Mabel's sad voice, wishing he was back up there with her. But the scenery changed a little, and he was staring at two people standing in the middle of the room. It was his Uncle Joey and Mabel who looked relatively similar to now, and her pig sat by her feet.

"I'm sorry for suddenly teleporting you down here, mister Joey. I… I know you've probably seen me in your journal that you have; the page telling about me. The symbol is a Shooting Star, and my name is Mabel."

The man stood a couple yards away, still wary of her. It was a little calming to see she had a pet pig with her, and the soft yet sad way she spoke made him think she wasn't as dangerous as the journal made her out to be. But he still didn't know completely yet. In Gravity Falls nothing was as it seemed, and this woman was not excluded.

"How do you know I have the journal?"

"You should have Journal Number two, if I am not mistaken. I have the first," Mabel replied, making the first journal appear before him, and then taking it away again. The old man's eyes widened at seeing the journal and he nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

"I need help. This machine here—I can't build it without those three journals. I owned them all centuries ago, but something happened and they were spread everywhere to where even I couldn't find them. But… I need this machine to be built… I'm begging you, please help me…"

Joey was still taken aback at her plea and desperate demeanor. If anything, she looked like a lost child who was trying to find their way home. And he felt for he, he really did, and it was hard to see her nearly in tears. She seemed more like a little girl in a woman's body, and he could only see that childish part of her. And he had a soft part for kids because he had two small nephews who had come to stay with him.

"I will make a deal with you; you can have anything you want if you please just help me on this."

Bill chuckled a little, although nobody heard him. He already knew his uncle would've been on board with helping her the first time she explained. In this memory, Mabel wasn't as mature as she was now, and he could see she resembled her kid version way more. And he already knew his uncle saw that and was willing to help her.

"…I suppose something small then… I would like you to watch out for one of my nephews for me; his name is Bill. Now I'd say William, but that kid can hold his own way more than little Billy."

Bill instantly cringed at the nickname and glared at his uncle. He called him that behind his back?! But more importantly, why only him? Was he saying he couldn't hold his own?!

"I worry for him, he's digging a little two deep… Just make sure he stays okay, alright?"

Mabel instantly nodded, a big smile coming onto her face. "Sure thing! I'll always watch out for him."

" _That's another reason why I knew a little more about you Bill. Sometimes I'd come check on you, but in opportune moments when you couldn't see me."_

"So like a stalker?"  
" _I checked on you once a month, and it's different if it was asked of me to protect you!"_

Bill found that he was now back with Mabel in their time and she sat glaring at him slightly, and he felt that his head was cushioned on something. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her face was hovering above his. Well, that meant his head was on her lap.

For a while, he just stared. He'd only be with Mabel for what could've been a little over a week, but for him get attached to her this much in so little time freaked him out. Who knows, maybe that "love at first sight" crap really was true. He doubted it though—she kind of annoyed him at first. But she had this personality that keep anyone's attention, and sadly, Bill wasn't excluded.

He couldn't necessarily call it love for her that he felt now, but it could morph into that if he hung around her long enough. It was currently just a feeling of protection he felt for her. Bill wasn't entirely heartless, so at some point he started to become sympathetic towards her.

"Bill…? Mabel…? What… What is this place?"

The couple's eyes widened at the voice of the other twin. Bill abprutly stood up, Mabel doing the same, but deciding to keep quiet. Sibling's spats usually weren't for others to but in; she would know. Although she had a nagging feeling this would be more than a spat.

William's eyes were wide, too, as he stared back at his brother. "What is this place? Why is it here? And what is that machine?!"

Bill sighed, taking a step towards his brother who looked confused, angry, and somewhat hurt. He ran a hand through his hair, deciding wether to give a lengthy explanation or short and simple. Or he could lie… He _could,_ but this was his twin, after all. "Alright, calm down, first of all. This place existed centuries before us and Uncle Joey, okay? The machine was also here in that time, and long story short, Mabel had Uncle Joey help her rebuild it… And we tried using it but it failed, broke, and now there are some aftershocks here and there so… Steer away from potentially dangerous places."

The younger twin glared at him, clutching his phone a little harder in his hand. "Why didn't I know about it? Did you know about it?! Is this what you were doing?"

"Uncle Joey said not to tell you about it. He just asked me to finish what we started."

"Why wouldn't you need my help? We could've done it together!"

"William, it's not like you were here all the time! It was too dangerous; I couldn't let you get hurt down here!"

William took a step forward, his tense form relaxing somewhat. Well, at least he kept him away because he _cared,_ which was definitely a new accomplishment for Bill. Bill never said things along the lines of "I love you," or even anything to show he held some sibling affection in that small heart of his. Well, good. At least he had a plausible reason, or he did to William anyway.

"Oh… Well alright then."

Really? He was okay with just that? Not that Bill had any problem with it, less waste of breath, but still, he kind of shot his mouth of there… He felt a little awkward with what was probably a sudden personality change. Was Mabel's good composition finally rubbing off on him?!

"Because you finally showed me how you feel! Don't worry, I love you, too, bro!"

What has he done?! "I-I lied! Don't come near me, you girly boy!"

William pouted, deciding to let the matter go for now. He supposed nothing would've really changed if he knew about it to begin with anyway; it broke on its own. But he had caught the scene with Bill in Mabel's lap… Exactly how close did they get while he was gone? Hopefully Bill would marry before he did… Being the older brother and all… Even if it was by five minutes. Or no… That probably wouldn't make a difference.

"Wow, you're really—"

William was cut off as the ground started shaking once more, but this time seemed way more rough than the first. The ground was jerking way more underneath their feet, and Mabel ended up tripping backwards, and Bill had to crouch and keep his hands steadied on the floor. But the debris was crumbling and started coming loose and sliding all over the place. Lights that were hanging on by their wires fell off completely, and the few that were working were flashing as the ceiling started to cave in in some areas. Panels that held up the ceiling started to fall, and Bill turned to head to William, trying to get him over to him and Mabel. Where they were was safer than the rest of the basement.

But he noticed William had fell on the floor like Mabel had, struggling to sit up as the ground continued to shake and shake. Mabel suddenly yelled, pointing above William's head and Bill did the same, his eye widening once he saw what was wrong. The panel above William was started to come loose; hanging on only by its corner.

Bill's heart was starting to surge with fear, his blood suddenly running cold.

"William get away from there! Get over here now!"

"I'm trying!"

He wasn't trying fast enough. Bill forcibly moved to his feet, the ground still continuing to jolt and he seriously hated that machine. Upon taking the first step, he already lost his footing and stumbled back onto his hands and knees, yelling out in frustration. If he didn't move now… If he didn't move now…!

"Damnit William, come on! Don't continue laying there, move it! At least crawl or something!"

To his surprise, even in the midst of all the chaos, he heard his brother start crying. Now, of all times, his brother had shown the rather weaker side of himself. He always had it, and it annoyed the hell out of Bill. William always cried easily, was sensitive, and had times where he would start getting really scared and start acting like anything but a man.

"…I'm too scared to move Bill…"

Bill had already figured that out, and knew despite what he said, William wouldn't move. If he informed him the damn loose panel above him was about to crush him, William would become more frightened. William was just too scared by loud noises, thunderstorms, any things that were natural disasters, and earthquakes were one of them. And with everything falling around them, it gave him more reason to be scared.

Bill turned his head to Mabel, yelling at her. "Mabel, can you do something for him?! Stop the panel from falling, anything!"

Mabel looked frightened, too, at what was happening to William. She wanted to help him, she seriously did, but at the moment her powers were still unstable, and unless there was another force to lend her the appropriate power, nothing could be done. "I can't do it on my own, I don't have the strength… I… I need another way to get it… A deal! A deal! Make a deal and I'll grant it!"

When Bill was going to instantly give her a simple deal, the ground stopped shaking, and Bill was finally able to bolt to his feet. He sighed a little that it was over and the panel hadn't fallen, and was turning to go give his brother the biggest knuckle sandwich of his life for scaring him like that, but then Mabel started screaming, her eyes widening as she watched ahead of him.

Bill then turned, too, and he adopted the same horrified look on his face. He already knew his feet wouldn't carry him fast enough and started running towards his brother, hands reaching out as he yelled out his name, fear and ultimate dread coursing through his veins.

But then the panel fell to the ground, smashing the one person who had been under it.

* * *

"William… William! C'mon… Mabel help me with this!"

Mabel could only stare on beside him, tears spilling from her eyes. He wasn't there, and she wasn't going to let Bill see what lay under that panel. She knew everything, after all, and she knew William had been crushed by the impact and weight of the panel, his skull having been the first thing to be crushed. And if Bill tried to move that panel anymore…

"…Quit, Bill. He's dead, look at the blood…"

"No, he's still alive! He could've just been cut and knocked unconscious!"

"Bill with that amount of blood he would've died from it… His… His skull cracked… His bones are broken… Don't try and lift it anymore, you don't want to see what it looks like underneath."

Despite that, Bill continued to pull until Mabel moved his hands away, blinking away the last of her tears. Maybe she thought some of the fault lied with her… She should've at least tried to use her powers to help him, but the risk was too great to try. She watched Bill with guilt, seeing him start to break from the inside.

 _Not William. Not him. That dumb face that always smiled, his stupid voice that always laughed…_

Bill started to feel a sensation of loss, one that grew bigger the more he started to realize what happened. How he was always so mean and rude to his brother, how much he hardly showed he cared for him… William always said "I love you" without a second thought, but when was the last time he said it? He supposed why it hurt so much now was because he had never thought of losing Will until much, much later. He never showed compassion to him, and now suddenly… He regretted it.

Bill could feel pain, too. Even though he acted out of place most of his life, he was still human. He and his brother had been together for 24 years; ever since they were born. Hell, they still lived together.

Mabel watched as a tear fell down Bill's face, the sudden overwhelming emotion from him caused her to give him his space. And she thought Bill could never cry…

"Stupid William… Why did you have to come back?"

Mabel already was thinking something else, hardly recognizing his death anymore. It's not like she couldn't bring him back. It was done before, but this time, with her… She wouldn't cheat him out of it.

"Mabel… You can bring him back right?"

The woman was silent. Even if she was the dream demon, she couldn't control everything, and no matter what, saving a life cost a life in return.

"…I can. But the cost of a life is another and—"

"Well take mine, damnit! I don't care if I die, William had good things going for him…"

Mabel sighed, her hand coming to rest on his shoulder. The offer she was going to present was crazy, and she was still reluctant to present it. But this would benefit the both of them, in some way. But things would change… A life for a life meant anyone's life, not only Bill… It could be _anyone._

"No, Bill. It's my life in exchange for his."

Bill remained still for a moment, eyes simply staring into hers as he tried to register what she was talking about. But then his eye widened and he shook his head furiously, hands grabbing her upper arms tightly to the point where it hurt. "No, I'm not doing that. I said _my_ life!"

"Bill it's not what you think… I'm not going to die, but I'll get my life back that I lost. The life that was gone centuries ago. And in return, I'll give you William back."

The man, still unstable with his own uncontrollable emotions, continued to shake his head as his eyes narrowed. He'd never see her again? In return for getting William, he'd lose her, too? No matter how he looked at what she said, he'd still lose her. Her and William had so much in common; their joyful attitude, radiant personality, and most of all, how easily they brought him out of his comfort zone. And even though it was like that, being brought out of his comfort zone was like stepping into the light, and he was able to feel _something_ after so long.

"Don't disappear, too," Bill muttered quietly. It was shameful to him, how he was acting, but he wasn't going to continue to try and feel emotionless anymore. In these moments, he found out that he was attached to Mabel and William way more than he could've ever thought.

"Actually… This will set us back in time. You will be the dream demon in my place, and then… Who knows. You decide from there… Please. I won't hurt anymore and can redo my mistake, and hopefully things will change with your existence. And you don't have to deal with the loss of your twin, and it only hurts worse for a while, whether I am here or not. So… This is the best deal, right?"

Bill was at a loss for words at the moment. Back in time? And he would be like she was; powerful, knew everything, and all in its self, a supernatural creature. If the situation was different, he wouldn't have hesitated. But now he just… didn't know… Until Mabel had begged him to accept. He winced as she started to cry again. But unless he acted, his brother would still remain underneath that plate—crushed and dead. And Mabel would continue suffering from the loss of her family…

"Deal…"

Her hand wrapped in magenta flames gripped onto his, and her grip tightened painfully as she yelled out, pain tearing at her body. The pain was apparent for Bill, too, but he simply grit his teeth and squeezed her hand in return. As her twin-tailed coat changed into a pink sweater, and her black pants changed into a purple skirt, and he found his own clothes changing, too. Her twin-tailed coat became his, the colors changing to yellow and brick patterns printed on it. The top hat came onto his head; simply floating as the bow-tie wrapped itself around his neck. Her magenta flame changed into a cyan one that belonged solely to him, and for a second, a vision of a triangle with a top hat and bow-tie flooded his vision before disappearing.

Soon enough, the flame disappeared, as well as the pain they were suffering. Mabel gasped, and leaned onto him as every ounce of strength left her. Bill's overwhelming feeling were suddenly all pieced back into their place and he felt calm, if not extremely powerful. To the side, he watched as the panel disappeared and in its place was William, breathing silently, and not a single wound on his body.

"…William will wake up in the dreamscape with you. The world will change now; the people that were here in your time will be gone and replaced with mine, so William is the only one you can take with you," Mabel breathed, becoming tired as she struggled to stay awake. The second she fell asleep, the time would be back, and she didn't know when she'd see Bill again.

"Man I'm tired… We'll meet again Bill… And I won't remember you, but you will still have your memories. Surely, next time, we'll be together instead. We won't only have a week's worth of feelings and memories; we'll make tons more."

Bill's arms wrapped around her as the places around them started to fade away, Bill, Mabel, and William being the only ones left. Bill heard Mabel's breathing became steady as she fell asleep, and knew that they'd be separated any moment now, but not before he could say something, whether she could hear or not.

" _I'll see you around, Shooting Star."_

* * *

The yellow triangle sat there, quietly sipping tea as a blonde man played on his phone on the couch, occasionally staring at the object with a mixture of awe and laughter. It was rather weird to see something drink from its eye. But then the creature moved, abruptly setting the tea down as he straightened up his bow-tie.

"I'm being summoned. See ya later!"

The triangle disappeared, making a grand entrance in front of the person who had summoned him. After all, it was rare for someone to find a way to summon him, might as well strike some fear into their hearts while he was at it.

As he laughed, his eye noticed the summoner; a chubby little kid with large white hair, that of which he instantly recognized the person as Gideon, or his sign Pentagram. But as he revealed his form to him, his eye surveyed the whole area, and caught onto two others hiding in the bushes.

As his eye met with her big brown ones, he felt giddy, and wanted to greet her so much. But he couldn't alert that big marshmallow of her presence because he knew that the boy wasn't really stable.

But still, when he spoke, he was completely honest, already looking forward to the future;

" _Oh Gravity Falls it's good to be back!"_

* * *

 **So during the end the story started falling apart. I spent about a week working on it, and a some point I just wanted to be done with the story. I give up on things really easily, and my motivation left me fast, so I just like drawing roleswitch!au MaBill for them instead.**

 **If you liked it, thank you. Maybe you understood the story during the end, maybe you didn't figure out. I don't know if I was clear enough.**

 **I dunno if I'm on board for a sequel... I don't really know what it would include.**

 **Sequels also take away the mystery of the endings of the first one ;3**

 **So if you leave a review or favorite, thank you lots! Appreciate ya! Even for just sticking around for that achingly long boring story, I am forever grateful!**

 **So until the next one, See ya~ 3**


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